Wall St flat after payrolls; Dow, S&P at records

By Ryan Vlastelica

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks were little changed on Friday, though the Dow and S&P 500 inched up to fresh records as October payrolls data indicated resilience in the face of slowing global demand.

The S&P is on track for its third straight positive session, and with the day's gains is now up 10 percent for 2014.

Employers added 214,000 jobs last month, below the 231,000 expected in a Reuters poll of economists, while August and September's gains were revised higher. The unemployment rate fell to 5.8 percent from 5.9 percent.

"It's hard to not bet on the economy, with the fundamentals looking like a full house: earnings are rock solid, we're growing at a nice pace and confidence is up," said David Kelly, chief global strategist for JPMorgan Funds in New York.

"The (payrolls) number was slightly weaker than expected but until we see real weakness or higher interest rates, we'll continue to be overweight on equities."

Gains were limited in the Dow by Walt Disney Co, which fell 2.3 percent from a record close to $89.86 a day after earnings met expectations, though its cable networks were weaker.

Salix Pharmaceuticals Ltd plummeted 34 percent to $91.30 in its biggest one-day drop, a day after it slashed its full-year forecast as its inventory for key drugs piled up. The issue dissuaded Allergan Inc from acquiring the drugmaker, people familiar with the matter said. More than 16.7 million shares exchanged hands in early trading, many times Salix's 50-day average of almost 2 million.

First Solar Inc sank 8.9 percent to $51.42 as the biggest decliner on the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 a day after the company said it wouldn't spin off its solar power plants into a separate, publicly traded entity as some of its competitors have done.

Energy shares were the day's strongest performers by far, rising 1.2 percent alongside a 1.4 percent jump in crude oil prices. Among the most active names, Chesapeake Energy rose 4.2 percent to $23.72 while Newfield Exploration was up 4.1 percent at $33.92.

By 12:37 p.m. (1737 GMT) the Dow Jones industrial average was up 8.18 points, or 0.05 percent, to 17,562.65, the S&P 500 had gained 1.15 points, or 0.06 percent, to 2,032.36 while the Nasdaq Composite had dropped 9.59 points, or 0.21 percent, to 4,628.88. Both the Dow and S&P hit intraday records at their session highs.

For the week, the Dow is up 1 percent and the S&P is up 0.7 percent in their third straight week of gains. The Nasdaq is flat on the week.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 1,850 to 1,123, for a 1.65-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 1,405 issues fell and 1,172 advanced for a 1.20-to-1 ratio favoring decliners.

The benchmark S&P 500 index was posting 49 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite was recording 88 new highs and 43 new lows.

(Editing by Bernadette Baum and James Dalgleish)