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Equities - Weekly outlook: May 6 - 10

Published 05/05/2013, 10:00 AM
Updated 05/05/2013, 10:00 AM

Investing.com - U.S. stocks rallied to record highs on Friday after better-than-forecast U.S. nonfarm payrolls data for April fuelled optimism over the outlook for the economic recovery.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 0.96% to close at record highs. It ended the week with a 1.8% gain.

The S&P 500 rose 1.1% on Friday, reaching new record highs and gained 2% for the week. The Nasdaq climbed 1.14%, extending the week’s gains to 3%, the biggest weekly increase since early January.

The U.S. Department of Labor said the economy added 165,000 jobs in April, above expectations for an increase of 145,000, while job increases for the previous month were revised up to 138,000.

The U.S. unemployment rate unexpectedly fell to a four-month low of 7.5% from 7.6% in March.

The data eased concerns that the U.S. economic recovery was faltering after data earlier in the week showed that the U.S. private sector added fewer-than-expected jobs in April and growth in the U.S. manufacturing sector slowed last month.

Also Friday, a report by the Institute of Supply Management showed that the U.S. service sector expanded at the slowest pace in nine months in April.

The ISM non-manufacturing purchasing managers’ index fell to 53.1 from 54.4 in March, below expectations for a reading of 54.0.

A separate report showed that U.S. factory orders fell 4.0% in March, more than expectations for a 2.6% decline.

In Europe, the benchmark Stoxx Europe 600 was up 1.1% following the U.S. payrolls data, extending its weekly increase to 1.7%. Germany’s DAX advanced 2.02% to close at a record high. The U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.94% and France’s CAC 40 added 1.4%.

The European Commission revised down growth forecasts on Friday, saying it now expects the euro zone economy to contract by 0.4% this year, more than the 0.3% decline it predicted previously.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank cut interest rates to a record low 0.5% from 0.75% amid concerns over the deteriorating economic outlook for the euro zone.

Asian markets were broadly higher following the ECB rate cut, with China's Shanghai Composite Index rallying 1.4% on Friday. Markets in Japan were closed for a holiday.




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