The three major U.S. stock indices all closed up on Friday after the release of favorable job data for June. The gains saw the indices close Friday’s session above their pre-Brexit levels.
The U.S. Labor Department reported that 287,000 jobs were added in June, exceeding the 165,000 jobs that economists predicted for the month. June 2016 also emerged as the most robust month of hiring in the U.S. since last October. The labor market also registered a remarkable rebound in June compared to May when only 38,000 jobs were created and emerged as the weakest month of hiring in the U.S. since 2010.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX:.DJI) added 250.86 points to push it up 1.4% over its previous closing level. The Friday gain saw the Dow make up for the losses triggered by the Brexit vote. The Dow is up more than 4% so far in 2016.
The S&P 500 (INDEXSP:.INX) added 32 points to 2129.90, thus closing the day 1.5% above Thursday’s mark. In the S&P 500, Technology and Consumer-discretionary stocks drove the gains. But Energy was a laggard in the last week despite posting a series of gains in the previous weeks. The Energy sector in S&P 500 was down 1.1% for the week ending Friday.
Signs of weakening crude and oil prices as U.S. crude production ticks up have been cause for some of the recent pullback in energy stocks.
The S&P 500 is also up more than 4% so far this year and the Friday gain saw the index recover much of the post-Brexit losses.
The tech-weighted NASDAQ Composite (INDEXNASDAQ:.IXIC) gained 79.95 points to 4956.76 on Friday, thus managed to finish 1.6% above its previous day’s closing. But the Nasdaq Composite is down 1% so far in 2016 despite these gains.