Futures-options traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange’s NYSE American (AMEX) in New York City, U.S., February 11, 2026.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
U.S. equities saw modest gains on Thursday, a day after a solid jobs report drew mixed emotions and traders took in more earnings news from big companies.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 295 points, or 0.6%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also rose 0.3% and 0.4%, respectively.
Cisco Systems slid 7% after the maker of networking hardware such as switches and routers issued disappointing guidance for the current quarter. McDonald’s turned positive after an earnings beat, rising 1%.
Those moves come after a downbeat trading day on Wall Street. Stocks ended the session lower after earlier rallying off the back of a strong jobs report, which showed sharp jobs growth of 130,000 last month, far above what economists were expecting, and much higher than the downwardly revised December gain. The unemployment rate ticked lower to 4.3% from 4.4%.
The report was a relief for investors who worried it would show a drop-off in the labor market, following a raft of recent data that’s indicated slowing growth in a “no hire, no fire” environment.
Yet the strong payrolls numbers also muddy the Federal Reserve’s interest rate outlook and could mean fewer rate cuts than traders were hoping for if higher inflation also remains an issue. That underscores the importance of Friday’s consumer price index, which could show the central bank just what is needed for its dual mandate to come into better balance.
“It’s going to put a lot of weight on Friday’s CPI report, because if that comes in tame, at least the market can understand that the inflation part of the Fed’s equation is cooling,” Tom Lee, head of research at Fundstrat Global Advisors, told CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Wednesday.
“And of course, now, if the job market is showing decent strength, it kind of relieves us from a macro perspective, because at least we’re not seeing an economic downturn,” Lee continued.
