The Dow and S&P 500 on Friday hit record closing highs, while registering gains for the week, and the NASDAQ recovered after US jobs data eased concerns over prospects for rising rates.
US job growth unexpectedly slowed last month, likely restrained by shortages of workers, a US Department of Labor report showed.
The report alleviated some concerns about rising inflation and potentially higher US interest rates, which some investors worry would hurt growth companies with high valuations.
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“Growth names that were taken to the woodshed are getting another chance, because they will be perceived to be less risky in an environment where there is a slower recovery, and that’s really what the jobs data is indicating,” Globalt Investments senior portfolio manager Tom Martin said.
Heavily weighted growth stocks such as Microsoft Corp and Apple Inc, which rose by 1.1 percent and 0.5 percent respectively, gave the S&P 500 and NASDAQ their biggest boosts.
However, gains were broad-based, with all major S&P 500 sectors ending in the green, and energy and real-estate leading the advance. Energy and materials hit fresh highs.
The Dow rose 229.23 points, or 0.66 percent, to 34,777.76, the S&P 500 gained 30.98 points, or 0.74 percent, to 4,232.6 and the NASDAQ Composite added 119.39 points, or 0.88 percent, to 13,752.24.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.67 percent, its biggest weekly percentage gain since March. The S&P 500 gained 1.23 percent, its best week since the middle of last month, while the NASDAQ shed 1.51 percent.
“The anticipation and confirmation of [US Federal Reserve] policy staying the same and continued economic recovery with vaccines rollout have fueled these all-time highs, but we do believe the volatility is going to be tightened in the short term,” Axs Investments chief executive officer Greg Bassuk said.
A raft of upbeat earnings also helped stocks, and S&P 500 earnings are estimated to have increased 50.4 percent in the first quarter from a year earlier, which would be the highest growth rate since the first quarter of 2010, Refinitiv data showed.
Payments firm Square Inc rose 4.2 percent after reporting a better-than-expected quarterly profit, as surging demand for bitcoin fueled a jump in cryptocurrency transactions on its application.
Streaming device maker Roku Inc jumped 11.5 percent after giving an upbeat revenue outlook, while fitness equipment maker Peloton Interactive Inc gained as it laid out steps to improve the safety of its equipment.
Expedia Group Inc shares rose 5.2 percent as analysts raised price targets following the company’s upbeat results.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 3.27-to-1 ratio; on the NASDAQ, a 2.12-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 164 new 52-week highs and one new low; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 164 new highs and 64 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 10.23 billion shares, compared with the 10.11 billion average for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
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