Investing.com – U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, buoyed by better than expected jobs data while investors remained optimistic that pro-EU candidate Emmanuel Macron would garner enough votes to win the final round of the French presidential election on Sunday.
Investors cheered a rebound in the U.S. labor market, after the Department of Labor said the U.S. economy added 211,000 jobs, which confounded expectations for an increase of 185,000.
The unemployment rate fell to its lowest level since May 2007, dropping to 4.4%, down from 4.5% in March.
The bullish jobs report sparked investors’ expectations for a June rate hike but failed to lift Financials, as Goldman Sachs (NYSE:GS), Bank of America (NYSE:BAC) and JPMorgan Chase & Co (NYSE:JPM) closed roughly flat.
According to investing.com’s Fed rate monitor tool, 74% of traders expect the U.S. central bank to increase its benchmark rate in June compared to roughly 60% of traders in the previous week.
Meanwhile, in corporate news, Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) hit an all-new time as investors piled into the tech stock following its first quarter earnings release on Tuesday.
Elsewhere, investors continued to pile into the euro, ahead of the French runoff vote.
Emmanuel Macron is widely expected to defeat anti-EU candidate Marine Le Pen on Sunday, as France takes to the polls to vote for its next president.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 21,006.73, up 0.26%. The S&P 500 closed at an all-time record high while the Nasdaq Composite closed at 6100.76, up 0.42%.
The ‘Bulls and Bears’ on Wall Street
The top Dow gainers included; E I du Pont de Nemours & Co (NYSE:DD) up 3%, Verizon Communications Inc (NYSE:VZ) up 1.8%, while Apple Inc (NASDAQ:AAPL) added 1.7%.
International Business Machines (NYSE:IBM) down 2.5%, Nike Inc (NYSE:NKE) down 0.9% and Visa Inc (NYSE:V) down 0.6%, were among the worst Dow performers of the session.