U.S. MARKET AVERAGES

Unimpressive employment data, accompanied by growing concerns about the economic growth and inflation sent stocks lower Friday. The major averages have consolidating recent gains, reflecting the lackluster report and the lack of a strong market driver. The Nasdaq is sitting near the flat line, while the Dow and S&P 500 are trading in the negative. Nine of the ten major sectors are posting losses.

A U.S. employment report showed a smaller-than-expected job creation in October. Employers added 56,000 workers to their payrolls last month, compared with a Wall Street forecast of 100,000.

The Labor Department report on Friday also showed the national unemployment rate eased to 5% from 5.1% in September. Analysts had forecast no change in unemployment.

Wall Street also focused on September''s job loss, which was just 8,000 from a previous 35,000 decrease, suggesting that the hurricanes'' impact was less than feared, although the department said their effect is still unclear.

Retreating oil prices brought some relief to the market A barrel of light sweet crude dropped 63 cents to $61.15 after expectations for greater demand this winter sent prices up more than $2 a barrel on Thursday.

Energy stocks continue moving too the downside with the natural gas sector leading the group falling about 2.8%. The gold sector is extending yesterday’s losses and is currently down about 1.4%.

The gaming sector is up 1.4% setting a new intraday high, despite disappointing earnings news from Scientific Games (SGMS: chart).

Among the gaining stocks, Biovail (BVF: chart), which announced a commercial alliance with Ortho-McNeil, has jumped to a new 52-week high. Hartford Financial Services (HIG: chart) is climbing to a fresh peak on earnings inspiration.

Among the losers, Tenet Healthcare (THC: chart) has fallen to a new 52-week low, dipping below a trading range. Macrovision (MVSN: chart) has added to Thursday''s substantial sell off, expanding its nadir.

Bonds extended their slide after falling to eight-month lows a day earlier, with the yield on the 10-year Treasury note rising to 4.66% from 4.65% late Thursday.

MOVERS AND SHAKERS

Diversified industrial group Honeywell International (HON: chart) announced it would buy back as much as $3 billion of its common stock. The transaction would stand for nearly 10% of the company''s 856 million shares outstanding. The company’s stock gained 1.5% yesterday and is likely to rise higher today.

Online travel agent Expedia Inc. (EXPE: chart) reported third-quarter earnings and revenue that came above analyst expectations. The company gained from increased worldwide merchant hotel revenue, contributions from recent acquisitions and growth in its car rental business. Expedia’s stock added 11%.

Apple Computer Inc. (AAPL: chart) was downgraded by Prudential Equity Group to ‘neutral-weight’ from ‘overweight’. The financial broker cited the recent valuation in the company''s stock and said it expects a strong first quarter and fiscal 2006, but it believes the stock has now fully ignored this reality. Apple’s stock dropped 2.3%.

ECONOMIC NEWS

Friday morning, the Department of Labor released its report on the employment situation in the month of October, showing that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than economists had been expecting.

The report showed that non-farm payrolls rose by 56,000 jobs in October following a revised decrease of 8,000 in September. The increase came in well below economist expectations of an increase of about 110,000.

Additionally, Kathleen Utgoff, commissioner of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, noted that the relatively weak growth in the labor market was not attributable to the areas directly affected by Hurricane Katrina.

“Rather, job growth in the remainder of the country appeared to be below trend in October,” Utgoff said. However, she noted, “It is possible, of course, that employment growth for the nation could have been held down by indirect effects of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.”