Weekly Market Wrap: February 6, 2015
Friday, February 6, 3:36 PM ET

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Most actively traded stocks include Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) up 3.5%, Twitter (TWTR) higher by 15.9%, Frontier Communications (FTR) up 3%, and Sirius XM Holdings up 1.1%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite are all significantly higher in the last five days of trading.

Crude oil futures are higher this week, trading at $51.83 per barrel on Friday afternoon.

And Gold futures are lower so far this week, trading at $1236.40 an ounce this afternoon.

In economic news, in the week ending January 31, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 278,000, an increase of 11,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up by 2,000 from 265,000 to 267,000. The 4-week moving average was 292,750, a decrease of 6,500 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 750 from 298,500 to 299,250.

The advance seasonally adjusted insured unemployment rate was 1.8 percent for the week ending January 24, unchanged from the previous week's unrevised rate. The advance number for seasonally adjusted insured unemployment during the week ending January 24 was 2,400,000, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's revised level. The previous week's level was revised up 9,000 from 2,385,000 to 2,394,000. The 4-week moving average was 2,421,250, a decrease of 21,250 from the previous week's revised average. The previous week's average was revised up by 4,000 from 2,438,500 to 2,442,500.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 257,000 in January, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 5.7 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in retail trade, construction, health care, financial activities, and manufacturing.

The unemployment rate, at 5.7 percent, changed little in January and has shown no net change since October. The number of unemployed persons, at 9.0 million, was little changed in January.

Total nonfarm payroll employment rose by 257,000 in January. Job gains occurred in retail trade, construction, health care, financial activities, and manufacturing. After incorporating revisions for November and December (which include the impact of the annual benchmark process), monthly job gains averaged 336,000 over the past 3 months.

In corporate dividend news, Union Pacific Corporation (NYSE:UNP) voted today to increase the quarterly dividend on the company's common shares by 10 percent to 55 cents per share. The increased dividend is payable March 30, 2015, to shareholders of record February 27, 2015.

ConocoPhillips (NYSE:COP) announced a quarterly dividend of 73 cents per share, payable March 2, 2015 to stockholders of record at the close of business on Feb. 17, 2015.

Phillips 66 (NYSE:PSX) has declared a quarterly dividend of 50 cents per share on Phillips 66 common stock. The dividend is payable on March 2, 2015, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on Feb. 17, 2015.

Western Digital (NASDAQ:WDC) declared a cash dividend for the quarter ending Apr. 3, 2015, of $0.50 per share of common stock. The cash dividend will be paid on Apr. 16, 2015, to the company's stockholders of record as of Apr. 3, 2015.

GE (NYSE:GE) declared a $0.23 per share dividend on the outstanding common stock of the Company payable April 27, 2015 to shareowners of record at the close of business on February 23, 2015. The ex-dividend date is February 19, 2015.

And, PepsiCo (NYSE:PEP) has declared a quarterly dividend of $0.655 per share of PepsiCo common stock. The dividend is payable on March 31, 2015, to shareholders of record as of March 6, 2015. This quarterly dividend is a 15 percent increase versus the comparable year-earlier period.

This is the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday, February 6, 2015.

Please join us on Monday for the Week Ahead Market Report.

For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.