The US markets coming out of their consolidation mood surged on Friday after getting an upbeat jobs data, with the Nasdaq and the S&P 500 reaching new record closing highs. The Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report showed stronger than expected job growth in the month of April. As per the report, non-farm payroll employment jumped by 211,000 jobs in April after climbing by a downwardly revised 79,000 jobs in March. With the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate edged down to 4.4 percent in April from 4.5 percent in March, its lowest level since a matching rate in May of 2007. The report also said the annual rate of growth in average hourly employee earnings slowed to 2.5 percent in April from 2.6 percent in March. In other economy news, Consumer credit in the U.S. increased by more than expected in the month of March. Federal Reserve in its report said that consumer credit jumped by $16.4 billion in March after climbing by $13.8 billion in February. Non-revolving credit such as student loans and car loans surged up by $14.5 billion in March after rising by $12.1 billion in February. The Fed said consumer credit increased by an annual rate of 5.2 percent in March, as revolving and non-revolving credit climbed by 2.4 percent and 6.2 percent, respectively.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 55.47 points or 0.26 percent to 21,006.94, the Nasdaq added 25.42 points or 0.42 percent to 6,100.76 and the S&P 500 ended up by 9.77 points or 0.41 percent to 2,399.29.
The Indian ADRs closed mostly in green on Friday, HDFC Bank was up by 0.20%, ICICI Bank was up by 0.38%, Dr Reddy’s was up by 0.35% and Infy was up by 0.04%.