US update: Stocks add gains, jobs growth slows, Ripple’s surge makes waves

The three major gauges extended gains in trading on Friday despite data that showed jobs growth slowed more than expected in December.  The S&P 500 was up +0.70%.  

US stocks notched up gains in technology and materials while banks and energy fell.  At the end of the first week of the new year, markets were gripped by exuberance as the Dow shot beyond a 1,000 point marker in a record number of days undeterred by the weather gripping the East Coast and the political shenanigans and internecine fighting in the Trump Administration gripping the country.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which rung up a fresh all-time  high on Thursday added +0.88% at 25,295.87, led by components Boeing surging +4.10% and VISA up +2.39%.  NASDAQ gained +0.83%. Techs continued to rally, Apple climbed +1.14%, Microsoft up +1.24%. Intel recovered from yesterday’s drop after it was plagued by news of security flaws in chips and was up +0.70%.  

Financials were under selling pressure and were among the laggards, JPMorgan Chase fell -0.64% and Goldman Sachs dropped -0.51%. Gold prices nipped down -0.03% at $1,321 an ounce as dollar stayed flat on soft jobs data. Oil slid from three-year highs.

    •    Dow 25,295.87 +0.88% 

    •    S&P 500 2,743.15 +0.70%

    •    NASDAQ 7,136.56 +0.83%

    •    Russell 2000 1,560.01 +0.28%

    •    NYSE Composite 13,103.20 +0.57%

    •    Gold 1,321.3 -0.03%

    •    Oil WTI $61.54 -0.76% 

    •    10-Year Treasury 2.47 -0.21%

Ripple's digital currency, XRP's price ascent, is making waves. Source: Shutterstock.com

Ripple surge makes waves

Ripple's digital currency, XRP's price ascent, is making waves. It's recent skyrocketing advance of over 1,000% in the last month saw it’s co-founder Chris Larsen, richer than Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg for a brief moment on Thursday according to the New York Times.

Larsen’s value was worth over $59bn on paper. The virtual currency has exploded more than 30,000% in the last year.  

In the NYTimes piece, Jeremy Gardner, an investor who previously worked at the virtual currency hedge fund Blockchain Capital, which invested in Ripple was quoted: “This is beyond insane...There’s absolutely nothing driving this rally except rampant FOMO [fear of missing out], misinformation, and speculation.”