US stocks surge despite weak job data

US stocks has surged despite a labour report that said the US economy added far fewer jobs than expected in January. Recovering from an early-week swoon, trades closed with net gains on Friday, picking up enough momentum mid-week to override disappointing jobs report at the weekend. The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished the week up 95.23 (0.61 percent) to 15,794.08. The broad-based S&P 500 tacked on 14.43 (0.81 percent) to 1,797.02, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 21.98 (0.54 percent) to 4,125.86. The gains ended two straight weeks of declines and followed a dreary January that shaved more than five percent from the Dow amid rising concerns about emerging economies and mediocre US earnings. Those worries picked up new force on Monday, when US stocks fell more than two percent on an Institute for Supply Management report that showed surprisingly weak manufacturing activity. Friday’s monthly jobs report also lagged expectations. The Labour Department said the economy added 113,000 jobs in January, far below the 175,000 forecast. But Friday’s market benefited from a shift in sentiment that arrived earlier in the week, said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer of BMO Private Bank. All three indices gained more than one percent. Ablin noted that all of the week’s data was not weak. A jobs report from private payrolls firm ADP showed solid growth in January, while ISM data on the services sector bested expectations for January. Investors may have written off Friday’s jobs data to cold weather, added Chicago-based Ablin, according to AFP.