Markets rise but “not a lot of upside”

Markets rose on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.1 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.3 percent and the Shanghai Composite jumped 1.3 percent.

Economic data on Friday werer mixed. A report showed that the US economy added 304,000 jobs in January but the Caixin/Markit manufacturing PMI for China fell to 48.3 in January from 49.7 in December. Another report showed that eurozone inflation fell to 1.4 percent in January from 1.6 percent a month earlier.

Earnings reports were mostly positive, with Kate Warne, investment strategist at Edward Jones, describing this earnings season as “reassuring”.

However, Barry Bannister, head of US equity strategy at Stifel, said that there is “not a lot of upside at this point” as “earnings growth is not that much this year, so the market is fairly valued”.