Stocks Move Higher - H & R Block (HRB) and NVIDIA Corp (NVDA) Post Big Gains

Posted: Friday, September 03, 2010 4:11 PM EDT
By: Market Intelligence Center Staff

Stocks closed higher this afternoon ahead of a three-day weekend thanks to a better-than-expected jobs report. August Nonfarm Payrolls fell 54,000 and July was revised to a loss of 54,000 from a loss of 131,000. The August unemployment rate rose to 9.6% from 9.5% while the August ISM Services Index fell to 51.5 from 54.3 in July. Investors have received more encouraging reports on the economy over the past three days than they did throughout August, when data regularly fell short of the market's already modest expectations. Reports beginning with Wednesday's manufacturing data touched off a rally at the beginning of September, which is historically a bad month for stocks. Next week the focus will be on the Fed Beige Book. Among the high volume stocks today NVIDIA Corp (NVDA), Goldman Sachs (GS), H and R Block (HRB), Morgan Stanley (MS) and Finisar Corp (FNSR) posted gains while Dynegy Inc (DYN), Eldorado Gold Corp (EGO), Goldcorp (GG), Campbell Soup (CPB) and General Mills (GIS) moved lower. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index closed the day down 1.90 at $21.29, an 8.19% decrease for the day. The Put/Call Volume Ratio is at 0.79 while the Put/Call Open Interest ratio is at 0.91. [InvestorsKeyhole, various news and data sources]