(MENAFN- ProactiveInvestors) U.S. stocks turned negative late Friday on concerns about Greece after earlier posting gains following a strong jobs report that meant 12 straight months of job gains above 200000 the longest such stretch since 1994.
At the closing bell in New York the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 61 points to 17824 while the Nasdaq fell dropped 21 points to settle at 4744 and the S&P 500 edged lower by 8 points to finish at 2055.
The losses come after a powerful rally on Thursday that pushed the Dow S&P 500 and the Nasdaq into positive territory for the year. Following Friday's close the Dow and the Nasdaq are now up just slightly for the year while the S&P 500 is down 0.2% so far in 2015.
On Wall Street Friday this morning's jobs report was the most significant piece of news with the Labor Department reporting non farm payrolls increased by 257000 above expectations for 230000. The unemployment rate ticked slightly higher to 5.7% from 5.6% in December.
December job gains were revised up to 329000 from 252000 while November gains were upped to 423000 from 353000.
On the New York Mercantile Exchange West Texas Intermediate for delivery in March settled at $51.69 a barrel up 2.4% for the session adding to gains from Thursday to post a 7.2% weekly climb. April gold fell $28.10 or 2.2% to settle at $1234.60 an ounce on the Comex following the better-than-expected jobs report posting a 3.5% loss for the week.
In corporate activity () rose more than 16% after adjusted earnings were double what analysts were expecting while revenue also beat estimates. The company however added a less-than-expected 4 million new users last quarter with the CFO blaming an "unforseen bug" in 's latest integration with iOS 8.
() shares jumped more than 10% after its adjusted earnings came in 8 cents above estimates while revenue also topped views.
Pandora () matched estimates with its quarterly profit but revenue fell short of analyst projections hurt by slower ad sales growth. The company also gave a disappointing revenue forecast for the current quarter sending shares down over 17%.
's () profit came in a penny above estimates and revenue also beat forecasts. But the consumer review site gave a downbeat forecast for the year due to slowing subscriber growth. Shares tanked over 21% on Friday.
GoPro () sunk over 13% after issuing a profit warning and announcing the resignation of its COO. But the company handily topped estimates on both earnings and revenue.
In other news Verizon () has confirmed it is selling $15.6 billion in assets to (NASDAQ:FTR) and ().
has now filed for bankruptcy protection after striking a deal to sell up to 2400 stores to Sprint () and hedge fund Standard General the chain's biggest shareholder.
The SEC and the Ontario Securities Commission are investigating a spike in BlackBerry's (NASDAQ:BBRY) shares on January 14 hours before Reuters reported that Samsung was in talks to buy the Canadian smartphone maker. The company's shares shot up 30% on the news that day to close at $12.60 on January 14 its biggest one day gain in years. Both companies denied holding talks for such a deal shortly after the rumour surfaced.
(NE) said that Amy Pascal the head of its movie business for more than a decade will be stepping down from her role and taking on a new job as producer following the November hacking scandal.
In world markets Europe’s benchmark stock index extended gains into a fifth straight session on Friday erasing losses in volatile afternoon action on the back of the U.S. jobs numbers. Meanwhile eurozone finance ministers have called an emergency meeting on Wednesday to discuss Greece's debt situation and how to get the country and the rest of Europe closer to a debt agreement. Concerns were sparked this afternoon after Standard & Poor’s downgraded the country’s long-term sovereign-debt rating to B-minus from B.
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