24/7 Wall St.

July 7, 2017: Markets opened slightly higher Friday buoyed by a better-than-expected jobs report. The tech and consumer discretionary sectors led the gainers while the energy and telecom sectors were the laggards.  WTI crude oil for August delivery settled at $44.23 a barrel, down 2.8% on the day and down 3.9% for the week following another increase in the oil and gas rig counts. August gold dropped 1.1% on the day to settle at $1,209.70, down about 2.6% for the week. Equities were headed for a higher close shortly before the bell as the DJIA traded up 0.46% for the day, the S&P 500 traded up 0.68%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 1.08%.

The DJIA stock posting the largest daily percentage gain ahead of the close Friday was McDonald’s Corp. (NYSE: MCD) which traded up 1.95% at $156.06. The stock’s 52-week range is $110.33 to $156.33 and the high was posted this afternoon. Volume was 15% below the daily average of around 3.5 million. The company had no specific news.

Nike Inc. (NYSE: NKE) traded up 1.49% at $58.01. The stock’s 52-week range is $49.01 to $60.33. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of about 21.6 million shares. The athletic gear maker had no specific news Friday.

Microsoft Corp. (NASDAQ: MSFT) traded up 1.31% at $69.46. The stock’s 52-week range is $51.55 to $72.89. Volume was less than half the daily average of around 25 million shares. The software giant said yesterday it is cutting thousands of jobs in a reorganization that will focus more on cloud computing.

Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) traded up 1.23% at $144.49. The stock’s 52-week range is $96.05 to $156.65. Volume was about 40% below the daily average of around 27 million shares. The company had no specific news Friday.

Of the Dow stocks, 23 are on track to close higher Friday and 7 are set to close lower.