Stocks rise on strong jobs gain, end week higher

Stocks ended the holiday-shortened trading week on a high note Thursday after the U.S. economy added jobs at a record pace in June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 92.39 points to 25,827.36, after surging nearly 470 points after the opening bell. The Standard & Poor’s 500 rose about 0.5% to 3,130.01, its fourth straight day of gains. The Nasdaq composite notched another record after rising 0.5% to 10,207.63.

For the week, the Dow rose 3.3% and the S&P 500 added 4%. The Nasdaq jumped 4.6%.

Markets will be closed Friday in observance of Independence Day.

Major averages rallied to session highs in early trading after a report showed the job market continued to climb in June from the crater created by the pandemic in the spring.

U.S. employers added 4.8 million jobs to their payrolls in June, the second straight month of job growth. Even though the unemployment rate is still very high at 11.1%, last month’s improvement was much better than economists expected.

Investors hope the economy can pull out of its recession relatively quickly as governments around the world relax restrictions. Those hopes have helped the S&P 500 climb back to within 7.6% of its record set in February, after earlier being down nearly 34% when recession worries were at their height.

“We’re starting to see the real economic data say, ‘Yes, the recovery is here, and it’s real,’” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network.

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To be sure, gains were kept in check Thursday following another surge in coronavirus cases. Stocks pared gains after Reuters reported a one-day spike of more than 10,000 cases in Florida. The total number of U.S. cases surpassed 50,000 for the first time Wednesday as outbreaks worsen in states throughout the Sun Belt.

The Johns Hopkins data dashboard reported 50,655 new cases, pushing the U.S. total to more than 2.6 million since the pandemic began six months ago.

Worries are rising that worsening levels of infections across the U.S. South and West could choke off the budding economic improvements. Such worries have held the market in check since early June following a monthslong rocket ride. But stocks nevertheless remained higher Thursday.

Oil companies, raw-material producers and other companies whose profits are very closely tied to the strength of the economy had the market’s biggest gains.

Energy stocks in the S&P 500 rose 1.1%, one of the biggest gains among the 11 sectors that make up the index. Noble Energy jumped 7.8%, and Diamondback Energy gained 5%.

They benefited from hopes that a recovering economy will restore some of the demand for oil that vanished in the spring as people stopped driving, airplanes were left parked in the desert and factories went idle. U.S. crude oil rose 83 cents to settle at $40.65 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, added $1.11 to close at $43.14 per barrel.

Bond investors were showing less enthusiasm, though. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note dipped to 0.67% from 0.68% late Wednesday. It tends to move with investors’ expectations for the economy and inflation.

Stocks also rose across Europe and Asia, while oil prices strengthened on hopes that a recovering economy will mean more demand for energy.

Earlier on Thursday, stocks climbed across Asia. South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.4%, the Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 2.9% and the Nikkei 225 in Japan added 0.1%.

In Europe, Germany’s DAX returned 2.8%, France’s CAC 40 rose 2.5% and the FTSE 100 in London added 1.3%.

Contributing: Jessica Menton of USA TODAY