Major US stock indices jumped on Friday and logged solid gains for the week after data on historic job losses due to the coronavirus crisis showed they were slightly fewer than feared.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors were positive, led by the beaten-up energy group , which gained 4.3%.
A 2.4% gain in Apple shares also lifted the indexes after the iPhone maker said it will reopen a handful of U.S. stores starting next week.
The U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, the Labor Department reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast payrolls diving by 22 million, but the decline still marked the steepest plunge since the Great Depression.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 455.43 points, or 1.91%, to 24,331.32, the S&P 500 gained 48.61 points, or 1.69%, to 2,929.8 and the Nasdaq Composite added 141.66 points, or 1.58%, to 9,121.32. The Nasdaq posted its fifth straight daily gain, its longest such streak since December 2019.
The Cboe Volatility Index , known as Wall Street’s fear gauge, fell 3.46 points to 27.98, its first close below 30 since Feb. 26.
Financial markets on Thursday began pricing in a negative U.S. interest rate environment for the first time, as investors grappled with the economic consequences of the new coronavirus outbreak.
Stocks have staged a sharp rebound since late March from the coronavirus-fueled sell-off, helped by massive monetary and fiscal stimulus. The tech-heavy Nasdaq on Thursday erased its 2020 declines and turned positive for the year.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 4.95-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.47-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 11 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and three new lows.
About 10.1 billion shares changed hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 11.4 billion daily average over the last 20 sessions.
