Market volatility declines further after upbeat payroll report

US stocks closed weakly on Friday as investors digested better-than-expected data on nonfarm payrolls.

The U.S. economy unexpectedly added 263,000 jobs in November, following a revised gain of 284,000 in October and also beating market estimates of 200,000. The unemployment rate is remained unchanged at 3.7% in November, while the average hourly wage rose 0.6% to $32.82 in November.

The report was released two days after Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said the bank could slow the pace of interest rate hikes.

Major sectors of the S&P 500 closed on a mixed note, with materials and industrials stocks posting the biggest gains on Friday. However, energy and information technology stocks traded lower in the previous session.

The Nasdaq 100 fell 0.4% to close at 11,994.26 on Friday, amid falling shares of Apple Inc AAPL and Amazon.com, Inc. AMZN. The S&P 500 slipped 0.12%, while the Dow Jones gained 0.10% to settle at 34,429.88 in the previous session.

The Dow, S&P and Nasdaq all posted their second straight weekly gains.

The Chicago Board Options Exchange's CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) fell 3.9% to 19.06 points.

What is the CBOE Volatility Index?

The CBOE Volatility Index, commonly known as the VIX, is a measure of stock market volatility expectation based on the call and put options of the S&P 500 index.

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