Stock market today: live updates

Stocks rose Friday at the start of November as Amazon led big tech stocks higher and traders looked past a disappointing jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 447 points or 1.1%. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose by 1% and 1.3%, respectively.

Amazon rose 7% as strength in its cloud and advertising businesses led the e-commerce giant to beat Wall Street's earnings expectations. Intel rose nearly 6% after beating analysts' revenue forecasts and issuing strong guidance. The two stocks boosted sentiment after some notable earnings disappointments this week.

Megacap tech stocks are still “the tail that wags the dog,” said Rob Williams, chief investment strategist at Sage Advisory. “You’re seeing some expansion, but it’s still such a massive component right now.”

Meanwhile, the jobs report released Friday showed the U.S. economy added just 12,000 jobs in October, well below the Dow Jones estimate of 100,000. This was the weakest level of job creation since December 2020. The unemployment rate was in line with estimates at 4.1%. However, traders didn't react too much to the jobs numbers, assuming the dismal data was hurt by hurricanes and a Boeing strike.

“Friday's jobs report showed that the labor market slowed significantly in October compared to September,” said Clark Bellin, president and chief investment officer at Bellwether Wealth. “But that was a loud number, largely due to hurricanes and labor strikes. Therefore, this weakness is unlikely to cause the Federal Reserve to back down from its expected 25 basis point rate cut at the November meeting.”

In addition to the US presidential election on November 5th, which has increased volatility, investors are also looking ahead to the Fed's two-day monetary policy meeting on November 6th and 7th.

The key averages cap off a choppy week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq, dragged lower by after-hours earnings slumps Microsoft And Metaplatformsfell by 0.8% and 1.1% respectively for the week. Meanwhile, the Dow is up just 0.2%.

The strong start to November follows a difficult October for the market. The 30-stock Dow fell 1.3% in October. The broad market index fell 1% in that time, while the Nasdaq fell 0.5%.