The thirty sixth trading week of 2014 comes to a close with the S&P 500, NASDAQ and Dow Jones higher in afternoon trading today.

Most actively traded stocks include Bank of America (BAC) down 0.78%, Apple (AAPL) up 0.65%, Vale (VALE) down 1.72%, and Gilead Sciences (GILD) lower by 2.38%.

Hi. I'm Sayoko Murase. Welcome to the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for September 5, 2014.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are all relatively flat for the week.

Crude oil futures are lower this week, trading at $93.36 per barrel on Friday afternoon.

And Gold futures are also down this week, trading at $1266.65 an ounce this afternoon.

In economic news, in the week ending August 30, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 302,000, an increase of 4,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 298,000. The 4-week moving average was 302,750, an increase of 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 299,750.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 142,000 in August, and the unemployment rate was little changed at 6.1 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported. Job gains occurred in professional and business services and in health care.

In August, both the unemployment rate - 6.1 percent - and the number of unemployed persons (9.6 million) changed little. Over the year, the unemployment rate and the number of unemployed persons were down by 1.1 percentage points and 1.7 million, respectively.

In corporate dividend news, Hess Corporation (NYSE:HES) declared a regular quarterly dividend of 25 cents per share payable on the Common Stock of the Corporation on September 30, 2014 to holders of record at the close of business on September 16, 2014.

American Eagle Outfitters (NYSE:AEO) announced a quarterly cash dividend of $0.125 per share, marking the company's 41st consecutive quarterly dividend. The $0.125 dividend was declared on September 2, 2014 and is payable on October 15, 2014 to stockholders of record at the close of business on October 1, 2014.

Gas Natural (AMEX:EGAS) declared a monthly dividend of $0.045 per share to shareholders of record as of September 15, 2014. The dividend will be payable on September 30, 2014.

The Dow Chemical Company (NYSE:DOW) has declared a dividend of 37 cents per share, payable October 30, 2014, to shareholders of record on September 30, 2014.

And, Family Dollar Stores (NYSE:FDO) has declared a regular quarterly cash dividend on the Company's common stock of $0.31 per share, payable Wednesday, October 15, 2014, to shareholders of record at the close of business on Monday, September 15, 2014.

This is the 'Weekly Market Wrap' for Friday, September 5, 2014. Please join us on Monday for the Week Ahead Market Report.

For MarketNewsVideo.com, I'm Sayoko Murase.