NEW YORK — U.S. stocks rose for a third session Friday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500 and Nasdaq tallying a fourth week of gains, after another strong monthly jobs report illustrated the recovery continues.
“It’s very positive that we’ve had three up days in a row after our first triple-digit selloff (this year) on Tuesday. It takes the threat that (Tuesday) was the beginning of a correction phase off the table, perhaps,” said Hank Smith, chief investment officer at Haverford Investments.
“The economy, while still growing at a below-average rate, is still improving,” Smith said of February’s jobs data. “The revisions up the prior two months were a very important part of this jobs report.”
Off 0.4 percent from the previous Friday’s close, its second weekly drop, the Dow Jones industrial average rose 14.08 points, or 0.1 percent, to 12,922.02.
Up for a fourth consecutive week, the S&P 500 climbed 4.96 points, or 0.4 percent, to 1,370.87, giving it a weekly rise of about 0.1 percent.
The Nasdaq composite gained 17.92 points, or 0.6 percent, to 2,988.34.
The U.S. dollar gained, especially against the euro, while bond prices fell, with the yield on the benchmark 10-year note used in determining the rate on mortgages and other consumer loans rising.
“The wild card here is the price of oil. If we have another spike upward, that would have a much bigger impact on the consumer,” said Smith, who believes the recent escalation in gasoline prices had less of an impact on consumers, who got a “real dividend from a mild winter, with heating bills dramatically down from where there were a year ago.” Crude-oil futures rose 82 cents, or 0.8 percent, to end at $107.40 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Ahead of the opening bell, the Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls rose by 227,000 last month, more than expected. The agency revised higher jobs growth for December and January.
“It’s another confirming data point that the healing process is well underway. I think it points to stronger gains ahead,” said Matthew Kaufler, portfolio manager at Federated Investors.
