Market rises to best level in 20 months

S&P 500 records sixth consecutive winning week, longest in 4 years

NEW YORK — Wall Street climbed back to its best level in 20 months on Friday following a stronger-than-expected report on the U.S. job market.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent, enough to clinch a sixth straight winning week for the index, which is its longest such streak in four years. Wall Street’s main measure of health is now just 4 percent below its record set at the start of last year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 130 points, or 0.4 percent, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.4 percent.

All told Friday, the Dow rose to 36,247.87. The S&P 500 rose 18.78 points to 4,604.37, and the Nasdaq climbed 63.98 to 14,403.97.

Yields rose more sharply in the bond market following the report, which said U.S. employers added more jobs last month than economists expected. Workers’ wages also rose more than expected, and the unemployment rate unexpectedly improved.

The strong data keep at bay worries about a possible recession, at least for a while longer, and stocks of some companies whose profits are closely tied to the strength of the economy rallied. Energy-related stocks had the biggest gain of the 11 sectors that make up the S&P 500, rising 1.1 percent as oil prices strengthened amid hopes for more demand for fuel.

Carrier Global climbed

4.5 percent for one of the market’s bigger gains after it said it agreed to sell its security business, Global Access Solutions, to Honeywell for $4.95 billion.

But the worry on Wall Street is that the remarkably resilient job market could also end up giving inflation more fuel. That could push the Federal Reserve to either raise its main interest rate further or at least keep it at its highest level since 2001 for longer than expected.

That in turn could dilute the central hope driving the stock market recently: Inflation

has come down enough from its peak two summers ago for the Fed to finally halt its hikes to interest rates and begin cutting them next year.

“The Fed is so afraid of ‘giving up before the job is done’ that it will err on the side of overdoing it,” said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management.

Overall, the job data looked decent, Bank of America economists said in a report. They said the numbers back up their expectation “that economic activity will slow, not crash.”