Stocks Opened Lower Despite Positive Jobs Data

U.S. stocks opened mixed to mildly lower on Friday, with the better-than-expected December payrolls report getting a muted response from Wall Street. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately fell 83.14 points to 12,332.56. The S&P 500 Index was down 7.72 points at 1,273.34. The Nasdaq Composite shed 10.15 points to 2,659.71.

The U.S. economy added 200,000 jobs in December and the unemployment rate fell for the fourth month in a row, the government said Friday. The unemployment rate edged down to 8.5% from an upwardly revised 8.7% in November, the Labor Department said.

Italian and Spanish government bonds were under pressure Friday, pushing up yields as both countries prepared to auction debt next week in a key test of market confidence. The yield on 10-year Italian government bonds rose back above the 7% level to trade at 7.11%, a rise of 16 basis points.

Fitch Ratings on Friday cut Hungary’s credit rating by one notch from BBB minus to BB plus and signaled further cuts may be in the offing by maintaining a negative outlook for the rating.

Apple’s new iPhone 4S consumes on average twice as much data as the previous iPhone model and even more than iPad tablets due to increasing use of online services like the virtual personal assistant Siri, an industry study showed.

LG Electronics Inc said on Friday it would unveil its first Google TV next week, joining Sony Corp and Samsung Electronics Co in partnering with the search giant to get a foothold in the emerging Internet TV market.