Stocks ticked higher on Friday following the release of the latest jobs report and ahead of a potential U.S. Supreme Court ruling on tariffs.
The S&P 500 climbed 0.28%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.19%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 142 points, or 0.29%.
The December jobs report showed nonfarm payrolls increasing by 50,000 last month, less than the 73,000 that economists polled by Dow Jones had estimated. That data, though slightly weaker than expected, showed a U.S. economy that’s still trudging along, with investors anticipating that growth will ramp up.
Additionally, the unemployment rate inched down to 4.4%, while economists had forecast 4.5%. Traders took that as a sign that improvement in the economy would happen soon.
