Investing.com – Wall Street was mostly flat on Friday after nonfarm payrolls came in lower than expected but wage inflation increased, giving little clue to the path of interest rates.
The Dow rose 25 points or 0.1% by 9:49 AM ET (13:49 GMT), while the S&P 500 gained 1 point or 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite was down 1 point or 0.1%.
Nonfarm payrolls came in at 130,000 in August, the Labor Department reported, which was fewer than the 160,000 expected. Still, the participation rate ticked up slightly, while average hourly earnings rose 0.4%, higher than forecasts. The unemployment rate remained steady at 3.7%.
Overall, markets still see a 92% chance that the Federal Reserve will cut interest rates at its policy meeting later this month.
Lululemon Athletica (NASDAQ:LULU) rose 7.1% after it posted a better-than-expected report for the second-quarter due to a boost in online sales and its menswear category. DocuSign (NASDAQ:DOCU) jumped 21.2% after the electronic signature technology gave an upbeat current-quarter forecast.
Elsewhere, Beyond Meat (NASDAQ:BYND) fell 5.5% on an analyst downgrade. And Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) fell 1.8% on news that it is facing an antitrust probe from the New York state attorney general.
In commodities, crude oil fell 1.7% to $55.32 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, was down 0.2% to 98.153 and gold futures rose 0.6% to $1,533.15 a troy ounce.