NEW YORK (Reuters) - Stocks closed out a historic week
with another day of gains on Friday, as the Dow hit yet another record
closing high on a payrolls report that surpassed even the most
optimistic forecasts.
The S&P 500 climbed for its sixth straight day, putting it less than 1 percent from an all-time closing high. The benchmark S&P index rose for its ninth positive week out of the last 10. All three major stock indexes racked up their biggest weekly gains since the first week of the year.
Hiring in the United States jumped in February with non-farm payrolls adding 236,000 last month, surging past expectations for a gain of 160,000 jobs and even topping the highest forecast of analysts polled by Reuters. The unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent, the lowest since December 2008.
"This was a lot higher than anyone was expecting, and it definitely shines light on the fact that the economy is improving," said Owen Fitzpatrick, head of U.S. equities at Deutsche Bank Asset and Wealth Management in New York.
"While in the near term, we may be overdue for a pause, given how much we've run. It is very constructive to see numbers improve like this," Fitzpatrick said.
For the year, the Dow is up 9.9 percent, while the S&P 500 is up 8.8 percent and the Nasdaq is up about 7.5 percent.
The day's gains were offset by a decline in some bank shares in the wake of the Federal Reserve's "stress test" results. While the results were largely positive and as expected, with the Fed saying the biggest U.S. banks had enough capital to withstand a severe economic downturn, investors took the opportunity to book profits in the group.
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