Global equity markets rallied on Friday, buoyed by a US payrolls report that shot past expectations, while the dollar weakened after several Federal Reserve officials voiced concerns about low inflation.
US job growth surged in April, with nonfarm payrolls increasing by 263,000 jobs, and the unemployment rate dropped to a more than 49-year low of 3.6 per cent.
Wall Street stocks rallied, with each of the major indexes firmly in positive territory, giving both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq weekly gains, reports Reuters.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 196.55 points, or 0.75 per cent, to 26,504.34, the S&P 500 gained 28.06 points, or 0.96 per cent, to 2,945.58 and the Nasdaq Composite added 127.22 points, or 1.58 per cent, to 8,164.00.
For the week, the S&P gained 0.19 per cent, the Dow slipped 0.15 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 0.22 per cent.
European shares closed higher, helped by gains in Adidas and HSBC after strong quarterly results.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.39 per cent and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.78 per cent.
MSCI’s index scored its sixth straight week of gains.
The dollar weakened against a basket of major currencies. The dollar index fell 0.36 per cent, with the euro up 0.2 per cent to $1.1198.
Oil prices advanced but recorded a weekly drop as surging US output countered production losses in sanctions-hit Iran and Venezuela.
US crude settled up 0.21 per cent at $61.94 per barrel and Brent was last at $70.85, up 0.14 per cent.
Benchmark 10-year US Treasury notes were last up 7/32 in price to yield 2.5287 per cent, from 2.552 per cent late on Thursday, falling from a 1-1/2-week high.
