U.S. stock market notches best week since late November

Wall Street turned the page on a painful May in the stock market by notching its best week since late November.

Stocks climbed for a fourth consecutive day Friday, capping a week of gains that reversed most of the losses in May, when President Donald Trump's tariff threats escalated trade wars with China and Mexico.

The latest rally came as investors welcomed a report showing that the U.S. added fewer jobs than expected last month. The lackluster snapshot of hiring appeared to increase the odds that the Federal Reserve will have to cut interest rates in coming months.

Stocks surged earlier this week when Federal Reserve Chairman Jay Powell said that the central bank would “act as appropriate” if the trade disputes threatened U.S. economic expansion.

The lackluster jobs report could signal growing caution by businesses as economic growth slows and the U.S. engages in multiple trade conflicts.

“It's a strange market right now,” said Gene Goldman, chief investment officer and director of research at Cetera Financial Group. “The markets are taking bad news as good news as reason to rally.”

The S&P 500 index rose 29.85 points, or 1.1 percent, to 2,873.34. The benchmark index notched its first weekly gain in five weeks and its best weekly gain since the week of November 26.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 263.28 points, or 1 percent, to 25,983.94. It had briefly been up 352 points.

The Nasdaq composite climbed 126.55 points, or 1.7 percent, to 7,742.10. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 10.85 points, or 0.7 percent, to 1,514.39.

Major stock indexes in Europe also finished higher.

Bond prices rose, pushing yields lower, a sign that the market is worried about slower economic growth. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.08 percent from 2.12 percent on Thursday. That hurt banks, which rely on higher yields for profit from loan interest. Citigroup slid 1.2 percent.