Today's Market Update with...

Ron Romaine, Value Line's Senior Industry Analyst

Following a mixed day in Europe, where 10 of the 18 national stock markets gained, Wall Street did little, the blue chips leading the smaller names at home. At the close, the Dow Jones Industrials had gained 17 points, to 10023; the S&P 500 was up 2, to 1069; the NASDAQ Composite was up 7, to 2112; the Russell 2000 had slipped 1, to 579; and the equally weighted Value Line arithmetic index stood at 2103, down 3 points. For the week, the Dow rose 3.2%. Leading the Dow today were General Electric (GE), Travelers (TRV), Home Depot (HD), and Procter & Gamble (PG), advancing 1% to 6.2%. Walt Disney (DIS) and American Express (AXP) gave up around 1.5% apiece. NASDAQ winners featured Nvidia (NVDA), Starbuck's (SBUX), Amazon (AMZN), and Electronic Arts (ERTS), up 4.6% to 7.3%. Hansen Natural (HANS), Verisign (VRSN), J. B. Hunt (JBHT) and Steel Dynamics (STLD) fell 2.4% to 6.8%.

The US economy lost 190,000 jobs in October, a bit worse than expected, and official unemployment rose .4 percentage points, to 10.2%. Average weekly hours were unchanged, at 33.0, but average hourly earnings were up 2.4% in the last year. The near-month crude oil contract dropped 3%, to $77.43 a barrel, but gold gained seven bucks, to yet another current dollar record of $1096.30 an ounce.

Interest rates slipped 2 to 3 basis points, easing the yield on the 10-year Treaury note and the 30-year bond to 3.5% and 4.39%, respectively.

Have a safe and pleasant weekend.