Apple juices Wall Street after mixed jobs report

By Lewis Krauskopf

(Reuters) - A surge in shares of heavyweight Apple helped push up major Wall Street indexes on Friday, as investors also assessed a mixed U.S. labour market report.

Shares of Apple , the world's most valuable publicly traded company, rose 2.8 percent as shoppers streamed into the company's stores to buy its latest iPhone. Apple also gave a better-than-expected sales forecast for the holiday shopping season.

U.S. job growth accelerated in October after hurricane-related disruptions in the prior month, the Labor Department said. But wages grew at their slowest annual pace in more than 1-1/2 years in a sign that inflation probably will continue to undershoot the Federal Reserve's 2-percent target.

 

"It kind of confirms this Goldilocks-type scenario where it's steady growth with really not a lot of inflationary pressure," said Michael Dowdall, investment strategist at BMO Global Asset Management in Chicago.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 26.93 points, or 0.11 percent, to 23,543.19, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 8.28 points, or 0.32 percent, to 2,588.13 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 48.96 points, or 0.73 percent, to 6,763.90.

Apple was easily the biggest individual boost to the three indexes. The stock also helped boost the tech sector <.SPLRCT>, which climbed 0.9 percent and led all major S&P 500 groups.

All three indexes were on track to record gains for the week, which saw a series of significant events, including the appointment of a new Fed chair and the long-awaited unveiling of a tax-cut bill from U.S. President Donald Trump's fellow Republicans.

Third-quarter corporate reports also have continued at a heavy pace. With more than 400 of S&P 500 companies having reported, earnings for the quarter are expected to have climbed 8 percent, compared to an expectation of a 5.9 percent rise at the start of October, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.

American International Group shares sank 4.8 percent as investors reacted to a surprise $836 million boost to the insurance giant's reserves.

Starbucks shares rose 2.3 percent following results.

In other corporate news, Qualcomm shares surged 14.9 percent after reports that Broadcom is exploring a deal to buy the smartphone chip maker. Broadcom shares rose 6.3 percent.

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.09-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.01-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru; Editing by Sriraj Kalluvila and Nick Zieminski)