Stock Market News: Costco Plods Ahead; Snap Gets Upgraded

Major benchmarks kept moving in a positive direction Friday morning, building on momentum from Thursday's midday turnaround. Market participants seemed to draw favorable conclusions from the September jobs report, which showed reasonably solid growth in nonfarm payrolls while still leaving open the possibility that the Federal Reserve will step in to reduce interest rates further. As of 11:20 a.m. EDT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES: ^DJI) was up 182 points to 26,383. The S&P 500 (SNPINDEX: ^GSPC) rose 20 points to 2,931, and the Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX: ^IXIC) picked up 51 points to 7,924.

The warehouse retail industry has long had Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) as its leader, and so many investors wanted to see how the the company would fare in its fiscal fourth-quarter financial report. Meanwhile, Snap (NYSE: SNAP) has been under considerable competitive pressure lately, but at least one analyst believes that the stock might be ripe for a comeback.

Costco Wholesale saw its stock rise almost 1% after releasing its most recent financial results. Unlike many of its peers, Costco hasn't really seen an abrupt slowdown in its business, and its latest numbers from the fiscal fourth quarter demonstrated the company's continuing ability to keep making steady progress despite prevailing industry conditions.

Source Fool.com