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Markets up despite jobless rise

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Wall Street took the markets higher going into the Labor Day weekend Friday, climbing for a fourth straight day despite a slight uptick in U.S. joblessness.

The day's gains left the Dow up 2.9 percent on the week, pushing it into positive territory for the year.

The week's upward surge left some analysts upbeat but others still wary.

"In the last two weeks or so, things have been starting to firm up, and today's jobs numbers really put an exclamation mark on that," Phil Orlando, equity strategist at Federated Investors, told The Wall Street Journal while predicting a continued upward trend after the holiday weekend. "We're feeling a lot more comfortable about our view, than those thinking about a double dip."

But Bob Browne, chief investment officer at Northern Trust Global Investments, told the Journal the addition of private-sector jobs in the latest report was on the weak side.

"We have a long way to go," he cautioned.

The Department of Labor said the unemployment rate in August rose to 9.6 percent from 9.5 percent. But the increase was widely anticipated -- it had been expected, in fact, a month ago -- meaning many investors had adjusted their positions in advance of the announcement.

By the end of the day, the Dow Jones industrial average gained 127.83 points, or 1.24 percent, reaching 10,447.93. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 1.32 percent, 14.41, to 1,104.51. The Nasdaq composite index gained 1.53 percent, 33.74, to 2,233.75.

Volume on the NYSE was 3,534,501,000.

The benchmark 10-year treasury note lost 23/32 to yield 2.71 percent.

The euro rose to $1.2896 from Thursday's $1.2822. Against the yen, the dollar rose to 84.33 yen from Thursday's 84.23 yen.

In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 index rose 0.57 percent, 51.29, to 9,114.13.

In London, the FTSE 100 index rose 1.06 percent, 57.11, to 5,428.15.

Crude oil settles below $75 per barrel

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Crude oil prices wound up below $75 a barrel Friday on the New York Mercantile Exchange, unable to follow the stock markets higher.

After busting past $75.25 earlier in the day, October light sweet crude ended the day down 68 cents at $74.34. Oil dipped 0.8 percent through the week heading into the Labor Day weekend after posting 2 percent gains last week.

"If the bulls cannot rally when equities are higher and the dollar is weaker, it should tell you how concerned they are about the American consumer," Hamza Khan, an analyst with The Schork Report in Philadelphia, told MarketWatch. "The consumer is not back on his feet."

October delivery light, sweet crude oil added 30 cents from a previous settlement to reach $75.28 per barrel. Heating oil prices fell 0.0107 cents to $2.0516 per gallon. Reformulated blendstock gasoline prices fell 0.0064 cents to $1.9152 per gallon. Henry Hub natural gas prices added 0.159 cents to $3.910 per million British thermal units.

At the pump, the national average price of unleaded gasoline rose Friday from Thursday's $2.676 per gallon to $2.681, AAA said.

Poll: Majority are broke by payday

NEW YORK, Sept. 3 (UPI) -- A majority of U.S. workers in a recent poll indicated that their next paycheck doesn't get into their hands quite fast enough, a private research group said.

In an extensive CareerBuilder survey conducted May 18 to June 3, more than three-quarters of respondents, 77 percent, indicated they lived "paycheck to paycheck" in 2009. More than 20 percent of the 4,400 respondents in the poll indicated they had not kept up with all their bills last year.

Consumers indicated the most common budget adjustment in their personal financing was in leisure activities -- a cut in spending -- followed by the use of coupons or a shift to discount stores. The next most common shift was a cutback in driving to save on gas.

"Our survey found that six in 10 workers say that the recession has made them more fiscally responsible," said CareerBuilder Vice President of Human Resources Rosemary Haefner.

In a similar poll, researchers at Gallup said 18.6 percent of respondents in a monthlong poll of 15,000 consumers indicated they were either unemployed or working part time, but looking for full-time work.

At the end of July the percentage of respondents Gallup calls "underemployed" was 18.4 percent.

The peak for underemployment came in April with 20.4 percent of respondents indicating they were either unemployed or not working enough hours.

The CareerBuilder poll carried a margin of error of 2 percentage points. Gallup said its poll carried a margin of error of 1 percentage point.

Growth slows in service businesses

TEMPE, Ariz., Sept. 3 (UPI) -- Growth in U.S. service industries slowed in August, the Institute for Supply Management said Friday.

With numbers above 50 indicating growth, the new orders index for non-manufacturing businesses dropped from 56.7 to 52.4, meaning new orders still grew but at a less robust pace than a month ago.

The main index for the service sector, the Purchasing Managers Index, also showed slowing growth at 51.5. A month ago the index was at 54.3.

The employment index fell into negative territory, dropping from 50.9 to 48.2. Inventories stayed positive but slowed, the index falling to 53.5 from 55.5.

Nine of 17 service industries showed growth, a drop from July when 13 of 17 service industries reported growth for the month.

Arts, entertainment and recreation showed the strongest growth, followed by real estate, educational services, transportation and warehousing and finance and insurance.