US stocks have jumped 1.3 per cent as investors took a report of continuing modest gains in job creation in May to suggest that the Federal Reserve will not reel in its stimulus in the short run.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 207.50 points (1.38 per cent) to 15,248.12.
The broad-based S&P 500 put on 20.82 (1.28 per cent) to 1,643.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 45.17 (1.32 per cent) to 3,469.22.
The Labor Department said 175,000 jobs were generated in May, better than pessimistic expectations, but still only at the same moderate pace of the past year.
The report “reflects improvement in the economy, but not so much improvement as to suggest that the Fed will alter its policy course,” said Briefing.com economist Patrick O’Hare.
Yet bond yields rose and the US dollar moved higher as traders in those markets read the data as confirming the Fed will begin pulling back its aggressive bond-buying program sometime later this year.
Boeing (+2.7 per cent) and Disney (+2.7 per cent) topped gainers on the Dow while AT&T, hit by allegations that it shared customer data with the US spy agency, lost 1.0 per cent.
Shares of Iron Mountain, the data storage and management firm, plunged 15.8 per cent amid tax regulator questions about its plan to convert into a lower-tax real estate investment trust or REIT.
Data-handling competitor Equinix, also with plans to become a REIT, lost 5.5 per cent.
TV recorder maker TiVo sank 19 per cent after the $US490 million payout it received from Google and Cisco systems to settle alleged violations of its patents came in much lower than TiVo shareholders had expected.
Power company Edison International gained 2.7 per cent after announcing that it would permanently close its 40-year-old San Onofre, California, nuclear power plant, dogged by safety troubles and public controversy since 2012.
Retail giant Walmart’s new $US15 billion share repurchase plan gave it a 0.9 per cent boost.
Monsanto, whose shares had stumbled amid fresh controversy over its genetically modified seeds program, jumped 2.9 per cent after it announced a $US2 billion repurchase program.
Clothier Gap rose 2.7 per cent helped by news that May sales were up 11 per cent from last year.
Bond prices sank. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.16 per cent from 2.08 per cent late on Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 3.32 per cent from 3.26 per cent. Bond prices move inversely to yield.
