A Mixed Friday

Friday’s trading session ended with mixed moves. The Dow and S&P 500 closed in the green zone while the Nasdaq shed some points. JPMorgan Chase, Caterpillar, IBM and Bank of America led the Dow’s ascent. Optimism provided by better-than-anticipated November jobs numbers was diminished by concerns about the progress on the U.S. budget talks in Washington. The Bureau of Labor Statistics said the economy added 146,000 jobs in November. Up from a downwardly revised 138,000 in October, economists had predicted a lesser addition of 93,000 jobs for last month. Additionally, the unemployment rate fell to 7.7% from 7.9%. Economists expected the rate to remain unchanged at 7.9%. On another note, consumer confidence is on the wane this month. According to the University of Michigan Consumer Sentiment Survey’s preliminary reading for December, confidence dropped 8.2 points to settle at 74.5. Economists were expecting a decline to 82.4.

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