Job creation in the United States remains strong despite an aggressive campaign by the Federal Reserve to suppress demand through interest-rate hikes in order to lower above-target inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.1 percent shortly after trading started, to 33,414.38.
The broad-based S&P 500 jumped around 1.0 percent to 4,263.35, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index jumped by close to 1.1 percent to 13,246.12.
The United States added 339,000 jobs last month, according to the Labor Department, defying economists’ forecasts and building on revised gains of 294,000 in April.
But the unemployment rate jumped by more than expected to 3.7 percent, which was one reason why the market reaction “hasn’t been so horrible,” Karl Haeling from LBBW told AFP.
Markets are also still digesting Thursday’s comments by two key Fed officials in which they suggested they could back a pause in interest-rate hikes later this month, he said.A final factor behind the buoyant markets could be the passage of a bipartisan bill to suspend the debt ceiling and avert a US debt default, according to Haeling.