The US markets showed splendid performance and all the indices went home with decent gains on Friday, as investors opted to buy beaten down but fundamentally strong stocks after previous session’s drubbing. Sentiments remained up-beat following the release of a report from the Labor Department showing much stronger than expected job growth in the month of June. The report said non-farm payroll employment jumped by 222,000 jobs in June following an upwardly revised increase of 152,000 jobs in May. The street had expected employment to climb by 179,000 jobs compared to the addition of 138,000 jobs originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the stronger than expected job growth, the unemployment rate inched up to 4.4 percent in June from 4.3 percent in May. Economists had expected the unemployment rate to hold steady. The Labor Department also said average hourly employee earnings rose by 0.2 percent to $26.25. Average hourly earnings in June were up by 2.5 percent year-over-year. Meanwhile, Traders kept an eye on developments out of the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, where President Donald Trump held his first face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 94.30 points or 0.44 percent to 21,414.34, Nasdaq surged 63.62 points or 1.04 percent to 6,153.08, and S&P 500 edged higher by 15.43 points or 0.64 percent to 2,425.18.