Wall Street Shares Surge After Solid NFP Report

Stocks broadly surged on Friday afternoon trading on Wall Street as investors and traders welcomed news of rebounding hiring by U.S. employers throughout October.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 225 points, or 0.6%, to 36,347 and the Nasdaq rose 0.6%, whereas S&P 500 rose 0.6%. More than 80% of stocks within the benchmark index have reaped gains and overall, the index is on track ahead toward its best week since late June.


Small companies’ shares did better than the broader market signaling that investors are confident about economic growth prospects. The Russell 2000 rose 1.6%.

The employment market took another big step toward recovering from the pandemic’s sharp blow more than 18 months ago. America’s employers added 531,000 jobs in October, the most since July, according to the Labor Department.

Getting more people back to work will help diffuse some of the bottleneck supply issues in the economy that is putting pressure on rising inflation.