By DPA,
New York : US stocks closed higher Friday, capping a third straight week of gains for the first time since October on better-than expected jobless figures.
The Labour Department reported that 20,000 jobs were lost in April but the unemployment rate fell to five percent. It was the fourth consecutive month of job losses but well below the 81,000 lost in March.
Energy shares gained but retail stocks declined as crude oil climbed more than 3 dollars to $116.30 per barrel. Chevron, the second-largest US oil company, reported a 10-percent increase in profits to $5.2 billion.
Technology shares fell after Sun Microsystems reported an unexpected quarterly loss and announced new job cuts.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 48.20 points or 0.37 percent to 13,058.20. The broader Standard & Poor 500 Index rose 4.56 points or 0.32 percent to 1,413.90. But the technology- heavy Nasdaq Composite Index fell 3.72 points or 0.15 percent, to 2,476.99.
For the week, the Dow climbed 1.29 percent, the S&P 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq 1 percent.
The dollar rose to 64.82 euro cents from 64.63 euro cents on Thursday, and to 105.35 Japanese yen from 104.42 yen.