NEW YORK, Jan. 5 (Xinhua) — U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, but ended a nine-week winning streak after investors weighed a stronger-than-expected jobs report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 25.77 points, or 0.07 percent, to 37,466.11. The S&P 500 added 8.56 points, or 0.18 percent, to 4,697.24. The Nasdaq Composite Index increased 13.77 points, or 0.09 percent, to 14,524.07.

Eight of the 11 primary S&P 500 sectors ended in green, with financials and utilities leading the gainers by adding 0.53 percent and 0.39 percent, respectively. Meanwhile, consumer staples and real estate led the laggards by dropping 0.24 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.

Banks continued to perform well, ahead of the start of earnings season next week, with the S&P Banks index (.SPXBK) hitting an 11-month high. Large regional banks were buoyant, with KeyCorp (KEY.N), Citizens Financial Group (CFG.N) and Comerica Inc (CMA.N) all rising.

However, it’s the first time since October that each of the indexes suffered a weekly loss, concluding the S&P’s longest win since 2004 and the Dow and Nasdaq’s longest win since 2018-19. Tech losses were concentrated among the biggest stocks. The 12 largest tech companies listed on the S&P lost an average of about 4 percent this week, knocking off some 500 billion dollars in market capitalization.

“For now, it probably looks like a healthy correction for a market that was overbought at the end of last year,” said Greg Boutle, head of U.S. equity & derivative strategy at BNP Paribas.

In terms of economic data, the U.S. labor market roared back in December, defying expectations with a surge of 216,000 new nonfarm jobs, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported on Friday. This robust job growth significantly exceeded the market’s 170,000 forecast. While November’s figure was revised slightly downward to 173,000, the December reading suggested persistent momentum in the hiring landscape.

Other details of the report showed that the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 3.7 percent. The annual wage inflation, as measured by the change in the average hourly earnings, climbed to 4.1 percent from 3.9 percent in November.

Meanwhile, the weak-than-expected service index for December 2023 issued by Institute for Supply Management (ISM) bolstered expectation for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve and hence helped the major indexes close high on Friday.

The ISM service index for December 2023 dropped to a seven-month-low of 50.6 from 52.7 in the previous month, according to data issued on Friday morning.

In the bond market, U.S. Treasury yields rose on Friday. The yield on the 10-year Treasury bonds climbed 5.1 basis points to 4.041 percent, the highest rate since Dec. 12.