Stocks rise slightly Friday, but head for big weekly loss on higher rate fears

The unemployment rate for Black men fell to 5.3% in October from 5.8% a month earlier on a seasonally adjusted basis. But it wasn’t because the group was necessarily getting ahead in the labor market.

The downward motion in unemployment for Black men is likely due to the labor force participation rate, which dipped slightly to 67.2% in October, just below the previous month’s reading of 68%.

In addition, the employment-to-population ratio for Black men fell to 63.6% from 64.1% in September, which could indicate that workers have stopped looking for jobs, sending unemployment lower.

Overall, unemployment for Black and Hispanic workers is still higher than white ones.

—Carmen Reinicke

Truist is bailing on technology stocks amid the latest market shakeup, downgrading the sector to underweight from neutral.

“The sector recently broke below an important technical price level and still trades at a significant market premium, despite earnings momentum at multi-year lows,” Truist said in a note to clients. “Importantly, we are finding better opportunities in other areas of the market, such as energy, industrials, health care, and staples.”

Technology shares continue to trade expensive at a 25% premium to the S&P 500, Truist said. That’s compared to an average 10-year premium of 6%. The sector, meanwhile, fails to offer the strong earnings momentum investors in the past have willingly paid a premium for.

The firm recommends the energy sector and defensive areas like consumer staples and healthcare —which tend to perform well in a weakening economic environment.

— Samantha Subin

Friday’s October jobs report may indicate earlier hikes from the Fed beginning to work their way through the system, said Charlie Ripley, senior investment strategist at Allianz Investment Management.

“Today’s payroll number was the lowest figure year-to-date and while the pace of the slowdown has not been materially evident, we could be witnessing the beginning effects of policy tightening trickle into the economy,” he said. “The bottom line is that despite the employment data not showing a swift slowdown, the data appears to be moving in the right direction, but at a very slow pace.”

— Samantha Subin

• Block — The mobile payments company jumped 10% on better-than-expected in its third-quarter results. Block earned 42 cents per share on revenue of $4.52 billion. Analysts polled by Refinitiv expected 23 cents earnings per share on revenue of $4.49 billion.
• Atlassian — Shares of Atlassian dropped 33.4% after the collaboration software maker reported lower earnings than expected and issued a disappointing outlook.
• DraftKings — DraftKings fell nearly 28% after warning a prolonged economic downturn could impact spending by its customers.

For more movers, check out the full story.

— Michelle Fox