Stocks moved broadly higher Friday afternoon on Wall Street after a better-than-expected report on U.S. jobs eased worries that the economy is slowing too sharply.
Health care, energy and technology stocks accounted for much of the rally, which placed the benchmark S&P 500 index on track for its seventh straight gain.
Investors welcomed new data showing that U.S. employers added 196,000 jobs last month, more than economists had forecast.
The gain gave encouragement to economists who said the prior months jobs report, which was shockingly weak, may have been an aberration and that the economy can continue to grow, albeit at a slower pace.
The jobs report also hit a happy medium for markets, strategists said. It was neither low enough to heighten recession worries nor high enough to prod the Federal Reserve to raise interest rates.
This is another green shoot of growth, Steve Chiavarone, portfolio manager and equity strategist at Federated Investors, who pointed to other encouraging data about the U.S. and Chinas economies from recent weeks. He expects economic growth to re-accelerate after hitting a bottom in the first part of 2009.
And with the Fed on record saying it may not raise rates at all this year, after having done so four times in 2018, good news now is just good news, Chiavarone said. Thats unlike prior market scares, when investors saw strong data as bad news because it could encourage a more aggressive Fed. The mentality flipped earlier this year after the Fed said it may not raise rates at all this year after raising them four times in 2018.
The S&P 500 has climbed every day this week, though most of the gains were only modest, and it now sits just 1.4% away from its most recent record high, which was set in September.
The index has been tacking on more gains since closing out its best quarter in nearly a decade, with a 13.1% rise in the first three months of the year. If the index ends Friday higher, it would clinch a seven-day winning streak, its longest in a year and a half.
Stocks around the world have also been climbing as the United States and China say they are making progress on talks to ease their trade war. President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. and China were rounding the turn in the talks, which resumed Wednesday in Washington. No details were announced, but Trump said after meeting with Chinese Vice Premier Liu He that something monumental could be announced within weeks.
Challenges still lay ahead for the market, though, including expectations for the weakest batch of corporate earnings reports in years.
KEEPING SCORE: The S&P 500 was up 0.4% as of 1:50 p.m. Eastern time. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28 points, or 0.1%, to 26,412, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.5%.
The Russell 2000 index of smaller company stocks picked up 0.8%.
Major indexes in Europe headed higher.
JOBS REPORT: The stronger-than-expected jobs report helped smooth concerns about the economy, after Februarys report initially said just 20,000 jobs were added during the month, which was sharply below the recent pace. The government on Friday revised that number to growth of 33,000.
Average hourly earnings rose 3.2% in March from a year earlier, which was weaker than economists forecasts. Markets pay close attention to the numbers because while higher wages help workers afford to buy more things, they also crimp corporate profit margins.
ENERGIZED RETURNS: Apache climbed 6.1%, EOG Resources rose 4.9% and Anadarko Petroleum added 4.3% as energy-related stocks plowed higher with the price of crude oil.
