After The Bell: Stocks Close Flat As Wall Street Eyes Fed Rate Hike

By Andy Giersher 

(CBS) -- Stocks closed mixed Friday as a better-than-expected October jobs report makes a Fed interest-rate hike much more likely when policy makers meet next month.

The S&P 500 closed flat, the NASDAQ added 19 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 47 points, settling to 17,910.

"I think today's jobs report gave investors a little more to think about in terms of when the Fed would raise rates this year. It had seemed as if pretty much everyone thought that you wouldn't see a rate increase until 2016, but this report coupled with Fed Chair Yellen's comments is starting to get people to kind of re-think things. It is interesting how today's stock market activity kind of reflected that," says Chuck Carlson, CEO of Horizon Investment Services.

He also noted that the three main engines of stock market performance are inflation, interest rates and corporate profits.