US markets close higher with notable gains on Friday

06 May 2023 Evaluate

Regaining lost ground from previous session, the US markets closed higher with notable gains of around 2% on Friday. Strength on the Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up stocks at reduced levels following recent weakness. Regional banks helped lead the recovery after ongoing concerns about turmoil in the sector weighed on the markets in recent sessions. PacWest Bancorp (PACW) skyrocketed by 81.7 percent after plummeting by 50.6 percent to a record closing low on Thursday. Western Alliance (WAL), Zions Bancorp (ZION) and Comerica (CMA) also posted standout gains after JPMorgan upgraded the stocks to Overweight, saying they appear substantially mispriced. A positive reaction to quarterly results from tech giant Apple (AAPL) also contributed to the rebound on Wall Street. Shares of Apple jumped by 4.7 percent after the company reported fiscal second quarter results that beat street estimates on both the top and bottom lines.

On the economic data front, traders were reacting to the release of the Labor Department's closely watched monthly jobs report for April. The report showed job growth far exceeded street estimates in the month of April, the jump in employment followed notable downward revision to the two previous months. The Labor Department said non-farm payroll employment shot up by 253,000 jobs in April compared to street estimates for an increase of about 179,000 jobs. However, the job growth in February and March was downwardly revised to 248,000 jobs and 165,000 jobs, respectively, reflecting a combined downward revision of 149,000 jobs. The report also said the unemployment rate edged down to 3.4 percent in April from 3.5 percent in March. Street had expected the unemployment rate to remain unchanged.

Dow Jones Industrial Average surged 546.64 points or 1.65 percent to 33,674.38, Nasdaq advanced 269.01 points or 2.25 percent to 12,235.41 and S&P 500 was up by 75.03 points or 1.85 percent to 4,136.25.

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