Stocks Rise on Disappointing Jobs Report

U.S. stock futures rose on Friday after the release of the July nonfarm payrolls report, which showed an unexpected loss of jobs and reduced bets for a Federal Reserve interest rate hike.

The S&P 500 index gained 0.3% to 7,731.39 points, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ climbed 0.8% to 26,557.94 points. In contrast, the blue-chip Dow slipped 0.1% to 53,849.26 points.

The July nonfarm payrolls fell by 23k, below the consensus estimate of a rise of 85k. This marked the first monthly loss in jobs since February, but employment in May and June was revised lower by a combined 103k. The unemployment rate ticked down to 4.1% in July from 4.2% in June.

According to Bill Adams, chief U.S. economist at Fifth Third Commercial Bank, the decrease in payrolls was largely due to a nearly 50k monthly fall in local government education jobs. However, he noted that private employment rose 30,000 in July, which was slow but not a crisis.