Stocks Hold Steady as Weak Dollar Offsets Jobs Report

Wall Street refused to succumb to fears sparked by November's dreary jobs report on Friday as a sinking U.S. dollar offset the economic gloom. Today's Markets As of 2:36 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 14.19 points, or 0.12%, to 11348.37, the Standard & Poor's 500 declined 1.22 points, 0.10%, to 1220.38 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 6.10 points, or 0.24%, to 2585.49. The FOX 50 slid 2.53 points, or 0.29%, to 871.33. Wall Street suffered just a fleeting selloff after the Labor Department said the U.S. added 100,000 fewer jobs in November than had been expected and the unemployment rate jumped to a seven-month high "The markets have gotten very excited over the past few weeks on the improving data and today was a bit of a slap to those hopes. With this said, the economy is continue to recover but the path will remain very bumpy," Peter Boockvar, equity strategist at Miller Tabak, wrote in a note. Inspired by sharply weaker U.S. dollar, the markets quickly bounced back and looked to preserve most of their two-day 350-point surge on the Dow. The ugly jobs report also boosted hopes for additional stimulus measures from Congress and the Federal Reserve. “It's hard to fathom why we aren't getting more of a selloff,” said Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Capital Group, crediting the dollar for creating a “counterbalance.” Most of the Dow's 30 stocks ticked lower, led by JPMorgan Chase JPM and AT&T T. The index's best performers were economically-sensitive DuPont DD and Alcoa AA. Continue reading the article.