Stocks rose on Wall Street and Treasury yields climbed Friday following a hot U.S. jobs report.
Stocks rose on Wall Street and Treasury yields climbed Friday following a hot U.S. jobs report.
The S&P 500 rose 0.9%, trimming some of its losses for the week and moving closer to its record high set last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 279 points, or 0.7% as of 2:51 p.m. Eastern. The Nasdaq composite rose 1.1%.
Technology companies led that march higher. Chipmaking giant Nvidia rose 2.1% and Google’s parent company, Alphabet, rose 1.1%. The gains were broad, with every sector in the benchmark S&P 500 rising, though the index is still on track for its first weekly loss in three weeks.
U.S. employers added a surprisingly strong 303,000 workers to their payrolls in March, according to a government report on Friday. The strong job market has helped fuel consumer spending and earnings growth for businesses, amounting to strong economic growth overall.
The robust job market has also sparked concerns about inflation creeping higher, which could delay any rate cuts by the Federal Reserve. However, Friday’s report showed that wages rose a modest 0.3% for the month, which puts less upward pressure on inflation, and Wall Street still expects the Fed to begin cutting rates in June.
Friday’s gains follow a late-day slump on Thursday for major indexes after a Federal Reserve official unsettled investors by questioning whether the central bank needs to cut rates at all this year amid a strong economy.
