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Stocks Eke Out Small Gains
By Sung Moss
TheStreet.com Staff Reporter
11/06/09 05:05 PM EST

(Updated with recent index values and recent stock quotes.)

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Stocks finished just higher on an uneventful day of trading Friday, a day the nation's unemployment rate reached a 26-year high, oil prices slumped and gold surged.

At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 17.5 points, or 0.2%, at 10,023.4. The S&P 500 added 2.7 points, or 0.3%, at 1069.3, while the Nasdaq gained 7.1 points, or 0.3%, at 2112.4.

For the week, both the Dow and the S&P gained 3.2% each, while the Nasdaq put on 3.3%.

"That 10.2% unemployment rate is going to catch everyone's attention in tomorrow's papers," says Robert Pavlik, chief market strategist at Banyan Partners. "The fact that we're not down another couple hundred points, I'd say, all and all, it's been a pretty good day."

After the closing bell, Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.B:NYSE) said net income tripled to $3.24 billion, or $2,087 per Class A share, from a year earlier, as operating earnings topped forecasts and revenues climbed just over 7%.

Elsewhere in the afternoon, the Federal Reserve said that the nation's consumer credit debt declined by $14.8 billion in September. Economists anticipated a $10 billion fall.

As equities finished the day just above break-even, oil futures fell $2.19 to settle at $77.43 a barrel.

"On a day like today, it has to go back to its fundamentals," says Darin Newsom, senior commodities analyst at Telvent DTN, about the crude selloff. "A lot of people are out of work. We've known that, but today's numbers seem to confirm it. It makes it more difficult for that market to rally. With the bearish underlyings in the market, it doesn't have anything to come back down to."

Oil sector stocks were some of the bigger decliners of the day. The Philadelphia Oil Service Sector Index fell 0.6%, while the Amex Oil Index lost 0.7%.

Sunoco (SUN:NYSE) shares fell just over 9% after the refiner reported a $312 million loss.

Gold rallied to a new high above $1,100 an ounce.

Nonfarm payrolls were slashed by 190,000, while the nation's unemployment rate rose to 10.2% in October.

Still, the major indices also internalized some better news, as job cuts were revised down slightly more than anticipated for September and August.

"The headline numbers were obviously worse than expected," says Paul Nolte, managing director at Dearborn Partners. "But I think when they finally parsed through all the data, they looked at it and said, 'Well, this isn't so bad after all.' "

"I don't want to leave the impression that this was a good number," adds Nolte. "We still have a long way to go before we start to see an actual improvement in the job picture."

A string of analyst upgrades boosted a basket of stocks on the Dow and the S&P. GE (GE:NYSE) was the biggest gainer on the Dow, rising over 6%, after receiving upgrades from Sanford C. Bernstein and Oppenheimer.

Following upgrades, Amazon (AMZN:NYSE) , Macy's (M:NYSE) , Travelers (TRV:NYSE) and Lennar (LEN:NYSE) added 4.7%, 6.4%, 2.5% and 4.7%, respectively.

Nvidia (NVDA:NYSE) , added over 7% following Thursday's earnings beat.

American International Group (AIG:NYSE) was one of the biggest losers on the S&P, declining near 10% after reporting its second straight quarterly profit. Still, the insurer said it expects continued volatility in the near-term.

The Commerce Department reported that wholesale inventories fell by 0.9%, just under the 1% expectation. Wholesaler sales also rose by 0.7%, just atop the 0.6% forecast.

In Europe, the FTSE in London fell 0.3%, while the DAX in Frankfurt went higher by 0.1%. In Asia, Hong Kong's Hang Seng added 1.6%, and Japan's Nikkei gained 0.7%.

-- Written by Sung Moss in New York

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