Wall Street pushes higher after jobs data

NEW YORK -- Stocks soared Friday as Wall Street cheered the positive news it had been hoping for: Job losses slowed in April and big banks don't need as much capital as some had feared.

All the major indicators rose more than 1 percent, including the Dow Jones industrial average, which jumped 165 points.

Bank shares helped drive the gains following the release of results from the government's "stress tests" late Thursday. Energy stocks surged as oil prices jumped on the improving economic outlook.

Wall Street welcomed the Labor Department's report that employers cut 539,000 jobs last month — the fewest in six months and much less than the 620,000 analysts had expected.

The jobs report also said the unemployment rate climbed to 8.9 percent — the highest since 1983 — from 8.5 percent as many businesses refrained from hiring amid an uncertain economic outlook.

"The news is never all good when you've hit bottom," said Alan Skrainka, chief market strategist at Edward Jones. "But that doesn't change our view that the rate of decline is slowing."

According to preliminary calculations, the Dow rose 164.80, or 2 percent, to 8,675.65. The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 21.84, or 2.4 percent, to 929.23, and the Nasdaq composite index rose 22.76, or 1.3 percent, to 1,739.00.

The Dow is up 4.4 percent for the week and down only 2.3 percent for 2009. It was the eighth gain for the index in 9 weeks.

The S&P 500 index is up 5.9 percent on the week, while the Nasdaq composite index is up 1.2 percent.