The stock market appeared conflicted Friday as investors weighed a better than expected June jobs report against worries about the end of the Federal Reserve's bond buying policy.
Stocks ended higher at the closing bell Friday: The Dow closed at 15,135, up nearly 1 percent over the previous trading day, propelled by gains in AmericanExpress and banking giant JPMorgan. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq made similar gains.
The jobs report means the economy is improving and is on track to at least pick up a little bit of momentum, Robert Pavlik, Banyan Partners' chief market strategist, told CNBC.
"I think the market is going to continue to move higher even as we approach the July meetings," he said. But as it gets closer to September "the possibility that market gets a little bit worried about the move up in Treasury yields comes back into play."
The U.S. economy created 195,000 new non-farm payroll jobs in June, the Labor Department reported, after an upwardly revised 195,000 jobs were created in May. The unemployment rate was unchanged at 7.6 percent as more people entered the labor market.
Markets had been awaiting the jobs report for clues as to when the Federal Reserve would begin tapering, or reducing its bond purchases. The Fed has said it expects to end its $85 billion monthly asset purchases when the unemployment rate drops to around 7 percent.
Jan Hatzius, Goldman Sachs chief economist, also is now calling for that to occur in September. "It's not a done deal. It could still be December," he told CNBC. "But when I take everything together—what they've said, what you've seen in the numbers— September is more likely."
On Friday, small-cap stocks and regional banks were among the market leaders.
"These are the sectors you want to see leadership from," Ryan Detrick, senior technical strategist at Schaeffer's Investment Research said, since they are closely tied to the U.S. domestic economy.
Home builders were among the weakest industry groups as investors fret about what higher interest rates will mean for the housing recovery.
The dollar jumped to a three-year high and 10-year Treasury yields pushed above 2.70 percent given the stronger data and growing anticipation of Fed tapering. Gold tumbled 3 percent.
(Read More: Why Higher US Yields Should Cheer Investors)
While the U.S. central bank may be closer to pulling back on the bond purchases, yesterday, both the European Central Bank and the Bank of England offered forward guidance on policy for the first time, and said record-low interest rates would be maintained for a prolonged period.
(Read More:July 4: Independence Day for Europe's Central Banks?)
Among stock movers, Dell was sharply lower on reports Michael Dell and Silver Lake will not raise their $24.4 billion buyout bid.
—Follow CNBC's Justin Menza on Twitter @JustinMenza.
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