Following a big day on Wall St. on Thursday, the markets fought to maintain gains made in the early part of Friday’s session and eventually closed higher for the third week in a row. Health care and consumer goods led the S&P 500 while industrials declined the most. Corporate earnings and economic data again drove momentum during the session. The Dow appeared to be unmoved by a Bloomberg news report that Dow Jones servers were infiltrated by a group of Russian hackers looking for stock tips. The FBI confirmed to CNBC that it is aware of the hack and is investigating. It was also reported that Goldman Sachs has fired about 20 analysts for cheating on internal tests. According to CNN-Money:
The cheating took place on internal tests, not regulatory exams. Goldman declined to say how the cheating was discovered nor specifically what the analysts were being tested on. Some of the analysts have been dismissed, while others are in the process of leaving the firm. The cheating scandal emerged just a day after Goldman disclosed a 16% decline in third-quarter compensation expenses, also known as its bonus pool. Goldman slashed pay at a time when it is hiring — its total headcount increased by 10%. Goldman suffered a 33% plunge in trading revenue last quarter amid turmoil in global financial markets. That was a bigger decline than what was experienced at rival firms that are less reliant on trading.
Here are the final numbers from Friday, 10/16/15 on Wall Street:
Dow Jones Industrial Average: 17, 215.97 (+74.22/ +0.43%)
NASDAQ: 4,886.69 (+16.59/ +0.34%)
S&P 500: 2,033.11 (+9.25/ +0.46%)
