By IANS,
New York : US stocks ended higher Friday as investors embraced a positive non-farm payroll report.
The Dow Jones industrial average gained 14.08 points, or 0.11 percent, at 12,922.02. The Standard & Poor’s 500 was up 4.96 points, or 0.36 percent, to 1,370.87. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 17.92 points, or 0.60 percent, to 2,988.34, Xinhua reported.
For the week, three major indexes were mixed. The blue-chip Dow slipped about 0.4 percent. The broader S&P 500 was almost unchanged while the tech-heavy Nasdaq added about 0.4 percent.
Friday’s gains came after the Labor Department reported that the economy added 227,000 jobs in February, more than economists had anticipated. Meanwhile, the February unemployment rate remained at 8.3 percent, in line with expectations.
Adding to the optimism, Greece managed to persuade the vast majority of its bond holders to take a loss on their investments, which was going to be the biggest national debt write-off in history for the debt-trapped country.
Investors were relieved to know that the deal saved Greece from a short-term bankruptcy, but some of them were still concerned that Greece’s troubles are more than a single debt reconstruction.