NEW YORK: US stocks advanced on Friday to close out the trading week after weaker-than-expected jobs data dampened expectations for a rate hike from the Federal Reserve at its policy meeting this month.
The labor department said nonfarm payrolls increased by 29,000 jobs last month, with the count for the prior two months also revised sharply lower, and well below the 90,000 estimate of economists polled by Reuters.
The weaker-than-anticipated data pulled down expectations for a rate hike of at least 25 basis points from the Fed at its meeting at the end of October to 22.7%, according to CME FedWatch, from 24.4% in the prior session and 64.2% a week earlier.
