Profit grab prompts Wall St whimper

Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management, attributed Friday's losses primarily to profit taking. Photo / AP

Wall Street stocks finished a buoyant week with a whimper, ending the Friday session lower in a drop attributed to profit taking.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 60.59 points (0.34 per cent) at 17,824.29 on Friday.

The broad-based S&P 500 lost 7.05 (0.34 per cent) at 2055.47, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index declined 20.70 (0.43 per cent) to 4,744.40.

Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management, attributed Friday's losses primarily to profit taking.

Even with Friday's performance, the Dow ended the week more than 650 points higher.

The losses followed a strong jobs report that sent US stocks higher in the morning.

The Labour Department said the US economy added 257,000 jobs last month, better than the 235,000 projected by analysts.

The report also included large upward revisions to jobs growth in November and December and said hourly wage growth gained 0.5 per cent, a big improvement after a December drop.

Dow member JPMorgan Chase (+2.0 per cent), Bank of America (+3.3 per cent) and other large banks rose.

A Wells Fargo Advisors note said their gains were due to "rate hike speculation".

Higher interest rates are a net positive for bank earnings.

Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 1.95 per cent from 1.81 per cent on Thursday, while the 30-year advanced to 2.53 per cent from 2.42 per cent.

Bond prices and yields move inversely.

- AAP