Midday Update: Stocks Mixed as Wall Street Digests October Jobs Report

Stocks were trading mixed, but close to flat, after October jobs offered a bit of a surprise.

Author:: Kinsey Grant
Publish date:: Nov 3, 2017 12:17 PM EDT

Stocks were mixed at midday as investors digested the October jobs report released Friday morning. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was slightly lower by about 10 points. The S&P 500 was also close to flat, and the Nasdaq was the only one of the three benchmark indexes to push higher at midday.

The U.S. economy added 261,000 jobs in October, which served as a rebound from September but fell short of analyst expectations for the month. Experts had expected the U.S. would add 308,000 jobs in October with unemployment steady at 4.2%. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1%, its lowest since December 2000. In September, the jobs figure shrank for the first time in seven years, following economic setbacks at the hands of a spat of hurricanes that battered the Southeast.

Apple Inc. (AAPL) - Get Report is at it again. Shares pushed higher in midday trading after the tech titan reported blowout fiscal fourth quarter earnings late Thursday. In addition to smashing analyst expectations, Apple raised guidance for the rest of the year. The company is bullish heading into the end of 2017, and CEO Tim Cook said this is going to be Apple's best holiday season yet.

Shares of Pandora (P) were way out of tune Friday, toppling over 20% by midday. The company offered dismal third quarter revenue that came in below estimates. Net losses for the music streamer widened to 34 cents per share from 27 cents per share a year earlier.

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