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World stock markets mixed

08 June 2009 11:45 (UTC +04:00)

Baku - APA-Economics. Stocks ended a volatile day Friday little changed after the government reported a spike in the unemployment rate to 9.4 percent in May, the highest level in more than 25 years, even as the pace of layoffs eased more than expected, AP reported.
The Dow Jones industrial average finished up almost 13 points at 8,763.13, just 14 points below where it started the year. The index had advanced as much as 89 points and moved in and out of positive territory for 2009 during the day, but the jump in the unemployment rate proved to be too tough to ignore.
Despite the troubling jobs data, the Dow and other major stock indexes finished the week higher. Although the Dow is still 38.1 percent below its October 2007 high, it has charged ahead 33.9 percent since hitting a 12-year low in early March.
"The markets are feeling better even though the economy is still sick," Conroy said.
The Dow rose 12.89, or 0.2 percent, to 8,763.13. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index fell 2.37, or 0.3 percent, to 940.09, and the Nasdaq composite index fell 0.60, or less than 0.1 percent, to 1,849.42.
The Dow is up 3 percent for the week, while the S&P 500 is up 2 percent and the Nasdaq is up 3.7 percent. It was the major indexes’ third straight week of gains.
The Labor Department said employers cut 345,000 jobs in May, far less than the 520,000 economists predicted, a hopeful sign for the job market. But the report also showed that the unemployment rate surged to 9.4 percent from 8.9 percent in April, suggesting that companies are still reluctant to hire.
The jobless rate is considered a "lagging" indicator, meaning that it usually recovers after the rest of the economy does. But economists expect the rate to keep rising.
Oil prices briefly surpassed $70 a barrel following the jobs report, but retreated to close down 37 cents at $68.44 a barrel.
In other U.S. trading, the Russell 2000 index of smaller companies fell 1.32, or 0.3 percent, to 530.36.
Declining stocks narrowly outnumbered advancers on the New York Stock Exchange, where consolidated volume came to 5.2 billion shares, up from 5.1 billion Thursday.
Overseas, Japan’s Nikkei stock average gained 1.0 percent. Britain’s FTSE 100 rose 1.2 percent, Germany’s DAX index rose 0.2 percent, and France’s CAC-40 rose 0.8 percent.