U.S. stocks soar on employment growth; DOW up 0.87%

Forexpros -  U.S. stocks opened the trading session Friday sharply higher as a very positive non farm payroll report combined with falling unemployment numbers confirmed the recovery in the world’s largest economy.
 
At the close of U.S. trade, the DOW soared 0.87%, the S&P 500 eased higher by 0.11% and the Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.98%.
 
The stock rally was triggered as  non farm payrolls in the U.S. beat forecasts adding 243,000 according to official data, and the unemployment rate dropped to 8.3%.
 
Hiowever, the improvement cause’s doubt that the Federal Reserve will be able to stick to its vow not to raise interest rates until late 2014.
 
The surprising rise in employment was broad based, involving multiple economic sectors.
 
Yesterday, Federal Reserve Chairman, Ben Bernanke stated at his testimony that the economy is showing signs of improvement. In addition to requesting lawmakers to reduce the long term U.S. budget deficit.
 
Earlier, in the European Union, Economic and Monetary Affairs Commissioner Olli Rehn stated that Greek debt negotiations were at an advanced staged with a conclusion pending.
 
The deal is supposed to be approved at an extraordinary meeting of EU finance ministers on Monday.
 
This agreement is critical for Greece to avoid default on March 20 by obtaining its next tranche of bailout funds.
 
However, Eurogroup head, Jean Claude Juncker stated talks with private creditors on the Greek debt restructuring plan have proven to be “ultra difficult”.
 
Companies most dependent upon economic growth such as Bank of America, Caterpillar, and FedEx all advanced over 1% at the open.
 
Commodity producers Alcoa and Haliburton climbed over 1.7% in the first 30 minutes of trade.
 
While drugmaker Gilead Sciences surged 10% after reporting positive clinical test results for its experimental hepatitis C treatments.
 
In late session European trade, the EURO STOXX 50 advanced 0.83%, France's CAC 40 gained 0.79%, while Germany's DAX surged 1.32%. Meanwhile, in the U.K. the FTSE 100 climbed 1.34%.