NEW YORK CITY (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2021) Wall Street's blue-chip and industrial stocks hit historic highs on Friday after an upbeat US jobs report for July signaled the labor market was catching up with progress in other parts of the economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
The S&P 500, which groups the top 500 stocks on the New York Stock Exchange, continued its record-setting streak for the week by rewriting Thursday's peak with a new, all-time high of 4,440. The blue-chip index closed the day at 4,437 for a gain of 8 points or 0.2 percent. For the week, the S&P gained 0.9 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, the broadest US equity barometer on the NYSE, made a historic peak at 35,247 points before finishing the session at 35,209 for a gain of 145 points or 0.4 percent. The Dow rose 0.7 percent for the week.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite, which includes Big Tech Names such as Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Netflix and Google, was the laggard of the day, sliding by 59 points, or 0.4 percent, to settle�the day at 14,835. Nasdaq, however, outperformed the Dow and S&P for the week, rising 1.1 percent, after strong closes from Tuesday through Thursday.
The US Labor Department reported earlier on Friday that employers in the country added 943,000 jobs in July, taking the unemployment rate down to 5.4 percent from June's 5.9 percent. Economists polled by US media had forecast a jobs growth of just 870,000 in July, after the previous month's gains of 850,000.
"The US labor market recovery is entering high gear," said Ed Moya, who heads Americas research for New York-based broker OANDA.
More than a year into the COVID-19 crisis, restoring job growth remains one of the main concerns of US policymakers.
The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April 2020, at the height of business lockdowns forced by the coronavirus. More than 7 million of those jobs have yet to return, officials say.
The US economy itself shrank 3.5 percent in 2020. This year though, growth has been quite dynamic, with a 6.5 percent rebound in the second quarter though that still lagged the 8.5 percent expected by economists.
The Federal Reserve has forecast a 6.5 percent economic growth for all of 2021. But Chairman Jerome Powell says he does not expect "full employment" � defined by a monthly unemployment rate of 4.0 percent or lower � to occur anytime soon.
