NEW YORK — Stocks started December with a jump. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 250 points Wednesday, its biggest gain since Sept. 1.
An encouraging employment report and hopes that Europe’s debt crisis may ease boosted major indexes, erasing nearly two weeks of losses. Bond prices and the dollar fell as investors moved money into riskier assets.
Signs that the U.S. job market thawed in November jump-started the gains. ADP Employer Services, a payroll company, said small businesses added the largest amount of workers in three years last month, well ahead of what analysts had forecast.
“The U.S. economy is all about jobs, and anything that leads folks to believe that there’s a better job market will be good for equities,” said Paul Zemsky, the head of asset allocation at ING Investment Management.
Greg Walker, a global investment strategist at J.P. Morgan Private Bank, said the ADP report gave traders confidence that the overall U.S. employment rate will fall. The Labor Department will release the November unemployment rate Friday morning.
More encouraging news followed throughout the day. The Institute of Supply Management said its index of manufacturing activity rose in November for the 16th month. The Federal Reserve then said the U.S. economy improved in 10 of the Fed’s 12 regions. Only the Philadelphia and St. Louis regions reported mixed economic conditions.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 249.76, or 2.3 percent, to 11,255.78. The Dow’s jump was big but didn’t rank among the top five point gains this year. The Dow had its largest gain May 10, when it soared 404 points.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 25.52, or 2.2 percent, to 1,206.07. The Nasdaq composite rose 51.20, or 2.1 percent, to 2,549.43.
All 10 industry groups that make up the S&P 500 index were higher, led by energy, industrial and technology companies. And all 30 stocks in the Dow index rose, led by Home Depot Inc., whose shares rose 4.6 percent. United Technologies jumped 4 percent, and Alcoa Inc. increased 3.4 percent.
