Jobs data boosts stocks, S&P 500 ends the week with solid gain

NEW YORK » Stocks closed higher Thursday after a report showed the U.S. job market continues to climb out of the crater created by the coronavirus pandemic in the spring.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% and finished the holidayshortened week with a gain of 4%.

Stocks also rose across Europe and Asia, while oil prices strengthened on hopes that a recovering economy will mean more demand.

Worries about the virus are still weighing on investors, however. Florida reported another sharp increase in confirmed cases, helping to cut the S&P 500s earlier gains by more than half. The bond market was also showing continued caution.

The pandemic has made collecting data on the economy unusually difficult, which leaves economists uncertain about the numbers’ accuracy. But they say it’s clear that the job market is improving after collapsing in the spring amid widespread shutdowns.

That bolsters investors’ hopes that the economy can recover from its recession relatively quickly as governments relax restrictions.

Such hopes have lifted the S&P 500 to within roughly 7% of the record set in February, after an earlier nearly 34% drop when recession worries peaked.

“We’re starting to see the real economic data say, ‘Yes, the recovery is here, and it’s real,’” said Brad McMillan, chief investment officer for Commonwealth Financial Network.

The next step, he said, is to see the job gains translate into lasting growth for workers’ incomes and for how much they spend.

Worries about the virus are still hanging around, though, and the S&P 500’s gains on Thursday more than halved at one point after Florida reported more than 10,000 new confirmed cases for the first time. It underlined how fragile the recovery is, and the bond market was also showing more caution than stocks as Treasury yields ticked lower.