After data on historic U.S. job losses due to the COVID-19 crisis showed they were slightly fewer than feared, major U.S. stock indexes jumped on Friday and logged solid gains for the week.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors were positive… 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.
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.
MacDailyNews Take: Hopefully, the U.S. job losses are temporary! The stock market trades on the future, not the present.