U.S. stocks staged a respectable rally Friday, surging on a surprisingly upbeat May jobs report, while safe havens like bonds and gold gave up …
U. S. stocks staged a respectable rally Friday, surging on a surprisingly upbeat May jobs report, while safe havens like bonds and gold gave up gains.
The moves extended a stock recovery that has seen Wall Street claw back many of the deep losses driven by the economic fallout from the pandemic.
All three major equities indexes climbed 2 percent or more, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly hitting a new all-time high before ending the session a sliver below.
The benchmark S&P 500 is almost back to where it was earlier in the year, closing 5.7 percent off its record high.
By closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 829.16 points, or 3.15 percent, to 27,110.98; the S&P 500 gained 81.58 points, or 2.62 percent, to 3,193.93; and the Nasdaq Composite added 198.27 points, or 2.06 percent, to 9,814.08.
The U. S. economy added a remarkable 2.5 million jobs last month, rebounding from April’s record 20.7 million drop and pushing the unemployment rate down to 13.3 percent. Analysts expected unemployment to soar to a historic 19.8 percent.
“The numbers are a huge surprise to the upside,” said Michael Arone, chief investment strategist at State Street Global Advisors in Boston.
