Financial markets were largely steady after the monthly U.S. jobs report showed signs of ongoing growth in the labor market and the unemployment rate fell to the lowest in nine years.
U.S. stocks were mixed on Friday morning, little changed from before the report. The Dow Jones Industrials Average fell 20 points, or 0.1%, to 19168 in early trading Friday. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% and the Nasdaq Composite was 0.4% higher. The WSJ Dollar Index and 10-year Treasury yields were also near where they were ahead of the release.
The employment report was the last one before the Federal Reserve's December meeting, when the central bank is widely expected to raise interest rates. Some analysts and investors said the jobs report contained enough signs of labor market strength to keep the Fed on its projected path into 2017, leaving stock markets relatively calm.
"The biggest risk to stock markets is the significant rise in rates," said Krishna Memani, chief investment officer at OppenheimerFunds.
A meaningful repricing of the path for U.S. interest rates could "bring down the equity market on its own," he said.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by a seasonally adjusted 178,000 in November from the previous month, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal forecast a gain of 180,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.6% last month, the lowest since August 2007, from 4.9% in October.
The WSJ Dollar Index, which measures the U.S. currency against 16 others, swung between slight gains and losses and was recently down 0.1%. Gold pared gains slightly and was recently up 0.5% at $ 1,176.30 an ounce.
In government bond markets, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield was at 2.405%, according to Tradeweb, compared with 2.430% before the jobs report and 2.444% Thursday, when it touched its highest since June 2015. Yields move inversely to bond prices.
Money has flown out of long-dated government bonds and into financial and industrial shares for the last month, helping push major U.S. indexes to record highs. These moves come as many expect Mr. Trump's policies to include fiscal stimulus and reduced regulation, driving expectations for stronger growth and higher inflation.
Questions remain, however, over policy implementation and the actual impact they'll have on the economy.
"Next year, the key debate will not be if, but when, to fade this reflation trade," said Adam Parker, chief U.S. equity strategist at Morgan Stanley.
"The story of 2017 is the tension between higher earnings and lower multiples," he said, adding that the bank now prefers the Japanese equity market to the U.S.
The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.7% and Japan's Nikkei Stock average lost 0.5%.
Some caution on Friday came from the U-turn in commodity prices, which weighed on mining companies and energy companies. U.S. crude oil was little changed at $ 51.08 a barrel.
Technology stocks fell in Europe after the Nasdaq Composite Index closed lower Thursday in its biggest one-day drop since October. Tech shares have been hurt recently after posting double-digit gains earlier this year amid concerns about the potential for stricter trade and immigration policies under President-elect Donald Trump's administration.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average has been up for two days in which the Nasdaq has dropped at least 1% on both—a combination that hasn't happened since 2000.
—Aaron Kuriloff contributed to this article.
Write to Riva Gold at riva.gold@wsj.com
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