Stocks extended slight gains on Friday, looking to snap their worst losing streak since 2008, as investors looked ahead to next week's presidential election.
The S&P 500 was up 0.42%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.26%, and the Nasdaq rose 0.47%. The S&P 500 fell for its eighth session in a row on Thursday.
Current polls indicate Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton has a slight advantage in battleground states and a wider path to winning the electoral college over Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump. Stocks have teetered throughout the week as Trump gained a few points in national polls. Voters will head to the polls next Tuesday, Nov. 8.
The number of jobs added to the U.S. economy came in slightly lower than expected, though August and September numbers were both revised upward. Economists anticipated 171,000 jobs to have been added to nonfarm payrolls in October.
The unemployment rate slipped to 4.9% from 5%, as expected. Average hourly earnings rose 0.4%, the highest since July, and above consensus of 0.3% growth. Earnings rose 2.8% year over year, highest since 2009.
"Today's report is the first of two employment reports we will get ahead of the December FOMC meeting," BNP Paribas analysts wrote in a note. "If this labor market progress continues, we see a high likelihood of a 25bp hike at that meeting, barring other shocks. Following the November FOMC statement we bumped up our probability of a December hike to 75% and today's NFP print nudges it higher to 80%."
