NEW YORK — Stocks meandered between gains and losses Friday after the March jobs report, which had the unemployment rate climbing to 8.5 percent, the highest since November 1983.
Energy and financials fronted sector gains, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 39.51 points, or 0.5 percent, to end at 8,017.59, giving it a weekly advance of 3.1 percent.
The S&P 500 Index climbed 8.12 points, or 1 percent, to 842.5, up 3.3 percent from the week-ago close. The Nasdaq Composite rose 19.24 points, or 1.2 percent, to close at 1,621.87, a weekly gain of 5 percent.
Meanwhile, as the week ended, General Motors Corp.’s standing as one of 30 members of an exclusive club — the Dow Jones industrials — is now viewed as shaky as it possibly heads into government-sponsored bankruptcy.
Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is among the picks of analysts weighing in on likely replacements.
General Motors and another Dow component, Citigroup Inc., were dropped days ago from Dow’s global stock index, with News Corp. — the owner of the index as well as of — citing market conditions for its ouster in a news release.
Pulling a company from the global index is often a “trial balloon” for an eventual ousting from the Dow industrials, said Doug Roberts, chief investment strategist for Channel Capital Research.
GM was most recently trading at just above $2, days after the White House forced GM chief executive Rick Wagoner to step down. President Barack Obama has said that if a plan to restructure the automaker fails, his administration is ready to let the company slide into a structured bankruptcy.
“The Dow has lower turnover than a Park Avenue co-op building and is just about as difficult to get into,” said Nicholas Colas, chief market strategist at BNY ConvergEx Group, noting that the blue-chip index has changed less than one name a year since it started more than 100 years ago.
Goldman Sachs tops Colas’ suggested list of compelling replacements for GM.
“It will be one of the first large banks to hand back TARP money and will benefit from increased capital markets activity,” he said.
Art Hogan, chief market strategist for Jefferies & Co., believes a transportation-type company would be the most suitable replacement for GM, and points to delivery companies FedEx Corp. and United Parcel Service Inc. as suitable candidates.
Apple Inc. is another company with a big stock price “that could really impact the Dow,” Colas said of the consumer technology company, but “Steve Jobs’ uncertain health may sway the Dow editors.”
Another potential candidate from the financial sector would be Wells Fargo & Co., the inclusion of which would “give the Dow more leverage to a recovery in the mortgage and housing markets,” Colas said.
