Friday's early afternoon trade: stocks at record levels despite tepid jobs report

US stocks eked out record highs on Friday but gains were limited as data showed job growth slowed in May, suggesting that a bounce in the labour market was losing steam. Nonfarm payrolls increased by 138,000 last month, below the 185,000 expected by economists. Data for both March and April was revised to show 66,000 fewer jobs were created than previously reported.
Average hourly earnings rose 0.2 percent in May, following a similar gain in April, but unemployment rate fell to a 16-year low of 4.3 percent in the previous month. While last month's job gains could still be sufficient for the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month, the modest increase could raise concerns about the economy's health after GDP growth slowed in the first quarter.
The economy needs to create 75,000 to 100,000 jobs per month to keep up with growth in the working-age population. Job gains are slowing as the labor market nears full employment. Odds of a rate hike at the Fed's June 13-14 meeting stood at 93.5 percent, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. "I do believe that the June rate hike is already priced in so it probably doesn't change what the Fed wants to do," said Neil Massa, senior equity trader at Manulife Asset Management in Boston.
At 10:51 am ET (1451 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 37.73 points, or 0.18 percent, at 21,181.91, the S&P 500 was up 3.38 points, or 0.13 percent, at 2,433.44 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 28.75 points, or 0.46 percent, at 6,275.58. Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors were higher, with the industrial and healthcare sectors leading the gainers. The financial and energy sectors were the main losers. Shares of banks, which benefit from higher interest rates, fell about 0.6 percent. Bank of America, J.P. Morgan, Citigroup and Goldman Sachs fell between 0.4 percent and 1.3 percent.