US stocks jumped and the Nasdaq hit an 18-month closing high on Friday as US employers cut fewer jobs than expected last month and consumers showed signs of shedding their penny-pinching ways.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 122.06 points, or 1.2 per cent, to end at 10,566.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index added 15.73 points, or 1.4 percent, to 1138.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 34.04 points, or 1.5 per cent, to 2326.35.
SPI 200 futures jumped 65 points to 4840, pointing to a strong start of trade on the local sharemarket on Monday. The dollar also gained in overseas trade, buying 90.77 US cents, up from Friday's close of 90.06 US cents.
The Dow and the S&P 500 closed at their highest levels in six weeks. The S&P 500 is now off only 1 per cent from a 15-month closing high set on January 19, having clawed back from a drop of more than 8 percent through February 8. All three indexes are now positive for the year.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.3 per cent, the Nasdaq added 3.9 per cent and the S&P 500 climbed 3.1 per cent.
Apple surged to an all-time high after the company said its much hyped iPad computer would arrive in US stores in April, easing concerns about delays.
The broader market got a lift from smaller-than-expected job losses, after US data showed nonfarm payrolls shed 36,000 jobs in February compared with expectations in a Reuters poll for a loss of 50,000. Investors had been concerned severe winter weather that affected swaths of the country would cause a larger drop in payrolls.
"We had been bracing for bad news, and what we got was much better than expected, which suggests we could potentially rebound further in March and April," said Marc Pado, market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco.
"This was the number people were fearing, and that we got through it like this is very positive for the long run."
News that consumer credit rose $US4.96 billion in January, its first increase in a year and the largest for any month since mid-2008, according to Federal Reserve data, boosted financial stocks. American Express rose 3.4 per cent to $US40.20 and ranked among the Dow industrials' top advancers.
Apple boosted the Nasdaq as the stock shot up nearly 4 per cent to an all-time closing high at $US218.95 after the company said the first iPad computers will be in US stores in early April.
There was broad participation across most market sectors, with cyclicals among the leaders as commodity prices rose along with investor optimism. But volume remained low in a sign of residual investor caution.
"The volume is really quite light, so the true interest that's waiting on the sidelines, although we're seeing an upside bias, is waiting for (political) progress in Washington," said Jason Weisberg, a trader at Seaport Securities in New York.
US crude oil futures prices ended at their highest level in almost eight weeks, at $US81.50 a barrel. An S&P energy index shot up 1.8 per cent, with energy among the S&P's best-performing sectors.
Dow components Chevron and Exxon Mobil rose, with Chevron up 1.7 per cent at $US74.30, and Exxon up 1.6 per cent at $US66.47.
Diversified manufacturer 3M gained 1.8 per cent to $US82.44, and ranked among the Dow's top gainers after the jobs data showed the manufacturing sector added 1000 jobs in February.
Declining shares included Solarfun Power Holdings, which fell 9.1 per cent to $US6.84 after the company warned of a steeper fall in average selling prices in its first quarter.
Transatlantic Holdings shares fell 3.4 per cent to $US51.96 after American International Group said it would sell its 13.8 percent stake in the company. AIG's stock gained 5.1 per cent to $US28.08.
About 8 billion shares traded on the New York Stock Exchange, the American Stock Exchange and the Nasdaq, below last year's estimated daily average of 9.65 billion.
Advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones on NYSE by a ratio of nearly 11 to 2, while on Nasdaq, about 11 stocks rose for every three that fell.
Reuters
