By Kate Gibson, MarketWatch
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) — U.S. stocks leapt on Friday, lifting the S&P 500 index above 1,600 for the first time, as the U.S. economy added more jobs than projected in April and the jobless rate fell to a four-year low.
Payrolls increased by 165,000 workers last month after a upwardly revised 138,000 hike in March that was larger than initially estimated, the Labor Department reported.
The unemployment rate fell to 7.5% from 7.6%, with the current reading the lowest since December 2008. See the jobs report in charts.
A separate release on March factory orders is due at 10 a.m. Eastern.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA +0.98% hit a record high of 14,990.08, and was lately up 147.94 points at 14,979.52.
The S&P 500 SPX +1.07% rose 17.35 points to 1,614.94.
The Nasdaq Composite COMP +1.28% added 40.04 points to 3,380.64.
For every stock on the run nearly half a dozen gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 87 million shares traded as of 9:45 a.m. Eastern.
Kate Gibson is a reporter for MarketWatch, based in New York.
