US indices flat amid mixed sentiment of weak jobs report

By Ovunc Kutlu

ANKARA (AA) - The US stock market was flat on Friday after disappointing employment data that showed the American economy added only 194,000 jobs in September, way below the market estimate of 500,000.

As the labor market remains weak, pressure builds up on worries that recovery in the world's largest economy is far from complete.

The weak data, however, also indicates that the Federal Reserve may postpone starting tapering, cutting back its monthly $120 billion asset purchases, to December from November, which would provide an additional one month for the markets to enjoy high amount of liquidity.

Amid mixed sentiment, the US indices opened lower, and then turned flat, but climbed to positive territory shortly after.

The Dow Jones was up 50 points, or 0.15%, to 34,805 at 10.00 a.m. EDT, while the S&P 500 rose 8, or 0.2%, to 4,407. The Nasdaq increased 5, or 0.03%, to 14,660.

It was oil majors that carried the Dow as crude oil prices hit new highs in three years. While Chevron stock price was up 1.5%, ExxonMobil and ConocoPhillips added more than 2% each.

The price of Brent crude was at $83.33 per barrel with a 1.7% gain, while the US benchmark West Texas Intermediate was at $79.97 a barrel -- a 2.1% increase.

With hopes that the Fed would delay tapering, the VIX volatility index, known as the fear index, declined 5.6% to 18.44. The dollar index fell 0.1% to 94.14.

The yield on 10-year US Treasury notes, on the other hand, rose 1.8% to 1.599%.

Precious metals increased with gold adding 0.8% to $1,770 per ounce, but silver added 1.6% to $22.96.

Bitcoin, the world's largest cryptocurrency by market cap, was in correction as it fell 0.5% to $54,300.

The total value of the digital coin market stood just below $2.3 trillion with Bitcoin dominating with a 44.4% share, down 0.3 percentage points from previous day, according to data by digital asset price-tracking website CoinMarketCap.