Investing.com -- U.S. stocks pared early gains on Friday, but still closed at their highest levels in two months as domestic nonfarm jobs rose sharply last month helping ease longstanding concerns that the economy could be on the verge of falling into recession.
On Friday morning, the U.S. Department of Labor reported that nonfarm payrolls soared by 242,000 in February, above consensus estimates of 190,000 and significantly higher than January's upwardly revised total of 172,000. The unemployment rate held steady at eight-year lows at 4.9%, while the labor force participation rate inched up to 62.9%. The robust job gains sent U.S. Stock Index futures higher in pre-market trading, before the major indices steadily moved lower throughout the session as analysts parsed the data from the critical report.
At the same time, investors reacted to slight declines in average hourly earnings last month, which prompted investors to push back their expectations for the timing of the Federal Reserve's next interest rate hike.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 62.87 or 0.37% to 17,006.77, closing higher for the third-consecutive week, while the NASDAQ Composite index gained 9.60 or 0.20% to 4,717.02 after holding onto its gains in the final minutes of the session. The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, added 6.59 or 0.33% to 1,999.99, as seven of 10 sectors closed in the green.
Stocks in the Basic Materials and Utilities industries led, each gaining more than 1% on the day. Energy stocks also closed moderately higher, as crude prices surged to a two-month high after oil rigs nationwide fell last week for the 11th consecutive week.
The top performer on the Dow was EI du Pont de Nemours and Company (NYSE:DD), which gained 1.27 or 2.05% to 63.18. DuPont finished just above Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL), which added 1.51 or 1.49% to 103.01, as some of its top rivals including Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ:AMZN) and eBay Inc (NASDAQ:EBAY) joined others such as Twitter Inc (NYSE:TWTR) and Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) in supporting the tech giant in its court battle with the FBI. Attorneys from Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL) are scheduled to appear before a U.S. federal magistrate on March 22 to argue against a motion that could compel the company to unlock a phone that belonged to one of the suspects in the San Bernardino terror attacks. The worst performer was Home Depot Inc (NYSE:HD), which slumped 1.24 or 0.98% to 125.56.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was SWKS, which soared 2.91 or 4.15% to 73.01, after AVGO topped analysts quarterly earnings forecasts and offered strong guidance for the second quarter. In a conference call on Friday, Broadcom (NASDAQ:BRCM) executives said they expect a "substantial increase" in iPhone 7 sales during the current quarter. Skyworks Solutions is one of the top chip suppliers on the market for Apple iPhones. The worst performer was Symantec (NASDAQ:SYMC), which fell 3.90 or 19.01% to 16.62, moving off six-week highs from the previous session. On Thursday, Symantec shares rose sharply after reports surfaced that the company will offer a dividend of 4.00 per share to investors of record on March 8.
The top performer on the S&P 500 was Chesapeake Energy Corporation (NYSE:CHK), which added 0.81 or 18.97% to 5.08. The Oklahoma City-based oil & gas company topped the S&P 500 for the third consecutive session, surging more than 95% since the close of trading on Tuesday. Former Chesapeake Energy (NYSE:CHK) CEO Aubrey McClendon was found dead in a fiery car accident on Wednesday morning, hours before he was scheduled to appear in court to face bid rigging charges related to a series of oil and land leases.
Chesapeake shares have posted one of their strongest three-day rallies in the history of the stock after the U.S. Department of Justice granted the company immunity on the condition they will disclose potential antitrust violations in the case. Symantec was also the worst performer on the S&P 500, just below H&R Block Inc (NYSE:HRB) which plunged 5.14 or 15.62% to 27.76.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing issues outnumbered declining ones by a 2,018-1,095 margin.