NEW YORK — Signs of slowing job losses in the U.S. sparked the best one-day gain in stocks in more than two weeks on Friday as investors bet more aggressively on economic recovery.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended 122.06 points higher, up 1.2 percent, at 10,566.20, its best one-day rise in both point and percentage terms since Feb. 16.
Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index gained 1.4 percent. Its financial sector rose 2 percent, getting a boost after an afternoon report showed borrowing by consumers unexpectedly climbed in January.
In the week’s most widely anticipated economic release, the Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls fell by 36,000 in February, well below the drop of 90,000 expected by economists polled by MarketWatch.
The unemployment rate held steady at 9.7 percent, better than the 9.8 percent rate economists expected.
The jobs report comes on the heels of recent readings of manufacturing, service-sector activity, and retail sales that have also shown improvement, reinforcing the view of many traders and analysts that the U.S. economy is staging a gradual comeback.
“I think this number will set the tone for the whole month,” said Alan Valdes, head of floor operations at the New York Stock Exchange for Kabrick Trading. “I think you’ll see volume pick up, and a lot of portfolio managers that have missed out will feel like now is the time to finally get in.”
Volume on Friday improved compared with the previous two sessions, though it still fell shy of the 2010 daily average of around 5 billion shares. Composite turnover in New York Stock Exchange-listed companies hit 4.3 billion shares.
“I think we could see some sideways action next week to consolidate some of these gains,” said Tom Alexander, president of Alexander Trading.
The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 1.5 percent, helped by a 3.9 percent gain in Apple after the electronics maker said its iPad tablet would be available in the U.S. on April 3.
Shares of Monster Worldwide Inc. and other staffing and job-search companies gained on Friday’s jobs report.
Monster and Manpower Inc. each jumped 3.8 percent. Robert Half International climbed 4 percent.
News from overseas was more of a mixed bag for investors.
