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NEW YORK: US stocks closed higher on Friday after a much anticipated jobs report lifted hopes that the US economic recovery was on the right track.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 127.83 points (1.24 percent) to end the week at 10,447.93, extending gains since Monday on mostly positive economic data.
The broader S&P 500 index gained 14.41 points (1.32 percent) to 1,104.51 points while the tech-rich Nasdaq composite index climbed 33.74 points (1.53 percent) to 2,233.75.
The rally closed the weekly trade on all three indexes with robust gains, ending three straight weeks of drops.
"It is all about the unemployment data which came out better than expected," said Peter Cardillo, an analyst at Avalon Partners.
In a closely-watched report, the Labour Department said on Friday that the economy lost 54,000 jobs last month, a better figure than the 120,000 loss expected by economists, as the unemployment rate climbed to 9.6 percent, its highest level since May.
However, the private sector created a much better-than-expected 67,000 jobs.
"In the wake of (Federal Reserve chief) Ben Bernanke's comments last week and recent economic data, this report adds to the notion recovery is slow and tepid, but is underway," said Jason Schenker, president of Prestige Economics.
It "was not great but could provide some boost to financial markets since the report was better-than-expected," he said.
On Thursday, Wall Street made modest gains on the back of positive jobs and housing reports, extending the previous day's boom on all indexes as traders breathed a sigh of relief after strong manufacturing data.
Among the stocks in focus, Brazilian state-run oil producer Petrobras saw its shares soar 3.83 percent following its announcement that it could raise as much as 64 billion dollars to help finance new exploration projects.
The bond market continued its downward trend. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury bond was up to 2.706 percent from 2.628 percent on Thursday while that on the 30-year bond rose to 3.783 percent from 3.726 percent. Bond yield and prices move in opposite directions.
- AFP/de
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