By: JeeYeon Park
CNBC.com Writer
Stocks surged to new all-time highs Friday, with the S&P 500 crossing above 1,600 and the Dow topping 15,000, as Wall Street cheered a better-than-expected April nonfarm payrolls report.
All three major indexes were poised to finish sharply higher for the week.
"It's going to be the first time we put two weeks together in a row to the upside in about eight weeks…so that' the good news," said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "But the bad news is that we've run out of catalysts next week—earnings season is virtually over and the macro is very quiet."
"But those that have been looking for a pullback, we've tried to give catalyst to this market to pullback and it hasn't worked," said Hogan, noting that the market has yet to see declines of greater than 3 percent this year. "That tells us that 'sell in May' is not going to work this year and I Think we're going to continue this grind higher."
Name Price Change %Change
DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average 14987.01 155.43 1.05%
S&P 500 S&P 500 Index 1616.20 18.61 1.16%
NASDAQ Nasdaq Composite Index 3384.45 43.83 1.31%
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 150 points to trade above 15,000 for the first time, led by Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard, extending its gains from the previous session.
It took the blue-chip index nearly six years to cross 15,000 after it first topped 14,000.
The S&P 500 surpassed 1,600 and the Nasdaq also rallied. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.
All key S&P sectors were firmly in positive territory, led by materials and industrials.
U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, according to the Labor Department, while the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. Economists in a Reuters poll expected a reading of 145,000 and unemployment to hold steady at 7.6 percent. Non-farm payrolls came in at a disappointing 88,000 in March.
"The [jobs] number beat consensus and also importantly, the revision from last month tells the story of a not-as-sluggish labor market," said Troy Logan, managing director and senior economist at Warren Financial Service. "However, the unemployment rate is still high. So that tells us that the Fed is going to continue with its accommodative policy – that means we have Fed support, which is good for asset prices and a jobs market which is not getting worse."
On Wednesday, the Fed said it was prepared to "increase or reduce" the monthly pace of its $85 billion in bond purchases, after its Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting.
"Adding to that, earlier this week, we saw that housing price levels have actually gone up," said Logan. "So in our view, the U.S. real estate market bottomed in 2012 and we're clearly on an upward trend in 2013."
Meanwhile, the rate of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed in April to 53.1 from 54.4 in March, according to the Institute for Supply Management, hitting its weakest pace in nine months. Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 54. Any reading above 50.0 indicates expansion in the sector. And factory orders posted their biggest decline in seven months, sliding 4 percent in March, according to the Commerce Department. Economists expected a decline of 2.6 percent.
But Wall Street largely shrugged off the pair of weaker-than-expected data and continued to trade near session highs.
Arthur Cashin, UBS Financial Services, provides his perspective on today's better-than-expected jobs numbers and the dramatic triple-digit gains on the Dow.
And global markets cheered the employment report, with European shares turning decisively higher and the dollar jumping against the euro and the yen. Oil prices rallied, while gold, often viewed as a safe haven, slid near $1,460 an ounce. Treasury prices also declined.
CNBC.com Writer
Stocks surged to new all-time highs Friday, with the S&P 500 crossing above 1,600 and the Dow topping 15,000, as Wall Street cheered a better-than-expected April nonfarm payrolls report.
All three major indexes were poised to finish sharply higher for the week.
"It's going to be the first time we put two weeks together in a row to the upside in about eight weeks…so that' the good news," said Art Hogan, managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "But the bad news is that we've run out of catalysts next week—earnings season is virtually over and the macro is very quiet."
"But those that have been looking for a pullback, we've tried to give catalyst to this market to pullback and it hasn't worked," said Hogan, noting that the market has yet to see declines of greater than 3 percent this year. "That tells us that 'sell in May' is not going to work this year and I Think we're going to continue this grind higher."
Name Price Change %Change
DJIA Dow Jones Industrial Average 14987.01 155.43 1.05%
S&P 500 S&P 500 Index 1616.20 18.61 1.16%
NASDAQ Nasdaq Composite Index 3384.45 43.83 1.31%
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shot up more than 150 points to trade above 15,000 for the first time, led by Caterpillar and Hewlett-Packard, extending its gains from the previous session.
It took the blue-chip index nearly six years to cross 15,000 after it first topped 14,000.
The S&P 500 surpassed 1,600 and the Nasdaq also rallied. The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, slumped below 13.
All key S&P sectors were firmly in positive territory, led by materials and industrials.
U.S. employers added 165,000 jobs in April, according to the Labor Department, while the unemployment rate fell to a four-year low of 7.5 percent. Economists in a Reuters poll expected a reading of 145,000 and unemployment to hold steady at 7.6 percent. Non-farm payrolls came in at a disappointing 88,000 in March.
"The [jobs] number beat consensus and also importantly, the revision from last month tells the story of a not-as-sluggish labor market," said Troy Logan, managing director and senior economist at Warren Financial Service. "However, the unemployment rate is still high. So that tells us that the Fed is going to continue with its accommodative policy – that means we have Fed support, which is good for asset prices and a jobs market which is not getting worse."
On Wednesday, the Fed said it was prepared to "increase or reduce" the monthly pace of its $85 billion in bond purchases, after its Open Markets Committee (FOMC) meeting.
"Adding to that, earlier this week, we saw that housing price levels have actually gone up," said Logan. "So in our view, the U.S. real estate market bottomed in 2012 and we're clearly on an upward trend in 2013."
Meanwhile, the rate of growth in the U.S. services sector slowed in April to 53.1 from 54.4 in March, according to the Institute for Supply Management, hitting its weakest pace in nine months. Economists polled by Reuters expected a reading of 54. Any reading above 50.0 indicates expansion in the sector. And factory orders posted their biggest decline in seven months, sliding 4 percent in March, according to the Commerce Department. Economists expected a decline of 2.6 percent.
But Wall Street largely shrugged off the pair of weaker-than-expected data and continued to trade near session highs.
Arthur Cashin, UBS Financial Services, provides his perspective on today's better-than-expected jobs numbers and the dramatic triple-digit gains on the Dow.
And global markets cheered the employment report, with European shares turning decisively higher and the dollar jumping against the euro and the yen. Oil prices rallied, while gold, often viewed as a safe haven, slid near $1,460 an ounce. Treasury prices also declined.
