[ by Melanie Gretchen ]

U.S. stock performance climbed as employment surpassed expectations.  For Bloomberg's full story, continue reading or click the link below.
 

U.S. Stocks Climb to Record as Jobs Growth Tops Forecasts
By Inyoung Hwang and Lu Wang - May 3, 2013

U.S. stocks rose, sending the Dow Jones Industrial Average briefly above 15,000 for the first time, as employment picked up more than forecast in April and the jobless rate unexpectedly declined to a four-year low.

Caterpillar Inc. and Alcoa Inc. rallied more than 1.9 percent to pace the Dow. Kraft Foods Group Inc. (KRFT) increased 5.1 percent as profit beat estimates. American International Group Inc. (AIG) climbed 5.7 percent as operating earnings surpassed projections. LinkedIn Corp. (LNKD) tumbled 13 percent after forecasting sales that missed analysts’ predictions.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index (SPX) advanced 1.1 percent to 1,614.42 at 4 p.m. in New York, topping 1,600 for the first time. The Dow gained 142.38 points, or 1 percent, to 14,973.96 after earlier climbing as high as 15,009.59. More than 6.4 billion shares changed hands on U.S. exchanges, in line with the three-month average.

GRAPHIC: Dow Reaches Milestone

“This is an outstanding jobs report,” Darrell Cronk, the New York-based regional chief investment officer at Wells Fargo Private Bank, which oversees $170 billion, said by phone. “The data is strong enough to confirm that the expansion is intact, and the bones of this recovery are where they need to be.”

Payrolls expanded by 165,000 workers last month following a revised 138,000 increase in March that was larger than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The median forecast of 90 economists surveyed by Bloomberg projected a 140,000 gain. Revisions to the prior two months’ reports added a total of 114,000 jobs to the employment count in February and March.

The jobless rate dropped to 7.5 percent, the lowest level since December 2008, from 7.6 percent in March.

[Bloomberg, 5/3/13]