Stocks on Wall Street surged Friday after the Labor Department reported a larger-than-expected gain on nonfarm payrolls and a decline in the jobless rate.
The S&P 500 rose 1%. The Dow Jones industrials jumped 1.2% with a 332-point gain. The Nasdaq Composite and {20|NASDAQ 100}} indices climbed about 1% and 1.1%, respectively. The US SmallCap 2000 Index hit a 52-week high and was up about 1%
The gains were almost instantaneous with the release of the jobs report showing a gain of 266,000 jobs in November and a 3.5% unemployment rate.
A host of stocks hit new highs, including Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), JPMorgan Chase (NYSE:JPM), Nike (NYSE:NKE), Google parent Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL). Ulta Beauty (NASDAQ:ULTA) was up 13.2% after better-than-expected quarterly results and easily led the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100. Boeing (NYSE:BA), up 1.87%, nonetheless contributed 44 points to the Dow's gain.
Oil prices were higher after OPEC agreed to more production cuts. West Texas Intermediate crude was up 66 cents to 59.09. Interest rates moved higher; Gold fell in New York.
