Dow, S&P 500 hit closing highs after jobs news
Stocks rose Friday -- with the Dow and S&P 500 notching closing highs -- after November's jobs gains blew way past estimates.
Employers added 321,000 jobs in November — the largest one-month gain in more than two years, the Labor Department said. Those numbers -- which kept the jobless rate steady at 5.8% -- far exceeded most economists' expectations of 225,000 new jobs.
The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.3%, a gain of 59 points, to its new closing high of 17,958.79. Climbing 0.2%, or about 3 and a half points, was the S&P 500. Its new high is 2,075.37.
Both indexes hit their previous closing highs -- 17,912.62 and 2,074.33, respectively -- on Wednesday.
The Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%, or 11 points.
Starbucks powered to an-all time high as the coffee shop icon debuted a huge flagship Starbucks store in its hometown of Seattle. SBUX ended the day at $83.57 per share, a gain of 2.8%.
In other economic news, orders to U.S. factories slipped for a third straight month in October and would have fallen even more except for a big jump in defense orders.
The U.S. trade deficit fell slightly in October as exports rebounded while oil imports dipped to the lowest level in five years.
Consumers increased their borrowing in October but at a slightly slower pace than in the previous month as credit card use slowed.
Asian stocks ended higher. European shares saw solid gains, with the DAX of Germany and the CAC 40 of France vaulting 2.4% and 2.2% higher, respectively.
Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 0.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.2%. Stocks in mainland China advanced 1.3%.
The Labor Department's payrolls report is expected to show 225,000 payroll gains by businesses, as well as federal, state and local governments.
On Thursday, the European Central Bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.05%, as expected.
"In spite of another downward revision to growth and inflation staff projections, the ECB delivered nothing but some futile communication changes," said Frederik Ducrozet, a senior economist at Credit Agricole Corp. "Draghi was not in a position to give any explicit signal at this point. This suggests that political hurdles to sovereign QE remain high."
Crude oil was down 46 cents at $66.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.
U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday.
Contributing: The Associated Press.