U.S. employers added a shocking 2.5 million jobs last month

Stocks rallied on Friday after a historic and surprising gain in U.S. jobs raised hope the economy is starting to recover from the coronavirus pandemic.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1,030 points, or 3.9%. The S&P 500 traded 3.1% higher. The Nasdaq Composite advanced 2.2%. The Nasdaq-100, which tracks the 100-largest nonfinancial companies in the composite, rose 2% to a record high.

Friday’s rally put the S&P 500 down just 0.7% for 2020. At one point this year, the broader market index was down 30.3%. The Dow was only down 4.3% year to date after being down as much as 34.6% in 2020. The Nasdaq Composite is now up more than 9% this year.

The Dow was up 6.9% week to date. The S&P 500 had gained 4.9% and the Nasdaq Composite was up 1.9%.

U.S. employers added a shocking 2.5 million jobs last month — the largest gain on record — while the unemployment rate slid to 13.3%, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists polled by Dow Jones expected a drop of more than 8 million jobs and the unemployment rate to nearly reach 20%, which would have been the highest since the 1930s.

President Donald Trump touted the strong data in a series of tweets, saying: “It’s a stupendous number. It’s joyous, let’s call it like it is.”

Shares of airlines jumped, adding to their big gains this week, as the industry added more summer flights. American Airlines jumped 28.6%. United Airlines shares surged 21.3%. The US Global Jets ETF is up 44.6% this week. Cruise-line operators such as Norwegian Cruise Line and Carnival both advanced more than 17% while Royal Caribbean gained 13.2%.

MGM Resorts jumped 8.2% while Kohl’s and Nordstrom advanced more than 12% each. Mall operator Simon Property gained 14.1%.

Shares of banks, which have been decimated during the pandemic as lending activity and margins dried up, soared as the jobs report suggested a quick bounce back for the economy. JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo and Bank of America all rose at least 5%.

Those gains came largely at the expense of stocks that benefited from people staying at home in the early stages of the coronavrius pandemic. Netflix fell 0.8% and Zoom Video lost 3.5%. Amazon slid 0.2%.

Dow rallies 1,000 points for the first time since early April amid historic jobs surge, CNBC, Jun 5