North American stocks kicked off the second quarter with modest gains after the U.S. Labor Department reported better-than-expected job gains in March.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 44 points or 0.4 per cent, to 12,364. The broader S&P 500 rose 6 points or 0.5 per cent, to 1332. In Canada, the S&P/TSX composite index rose 28 points or 0.2 per cent, to 14,144. Despite the steady increase over the past week, major indexes are still a little below their mid-February highs.
The Labor Department reported that the U.S. economy generated 216,000 jobs last month, better than the 190,000 job gains expected by economists. The private sector in particular added 230,000 jobs (the number of government jobs decreased slightly), which also beat expectations, while the unemployment rate fell to 8.8 per cent from 8.9 per cent.
Market gains were slight given the upbeat report, but already investors are beginning to weigh the likely response from the Federal Reserve, which has long been awaiting improvement in the employment situation before signalling a shift in its ultra-low interest rate policy.
In terms of stock moves, NYSE Euronext Inc. rose 10.8 per cent after Nasdaq OMX Group Inc. and IntercontinentialExchange bid $11.3-billion (U.S.) for the exchange, topping an earlier bid from Deutsche Boerse AG.
Bank of America Corp. rose 1.1 per cent, Caterpillar Inc. rose 1 per cent and Coca-Cola Co. rose 0.8 per cent. However, technology stocks were weak, with Intel Corp. down 0.9 per cent and Hewlett-Packard Co. down 0.8 per cent.
Commodities were mixed. Crude oil rose 28 cents, to $107 a barrel. But gold fell to $1423 an ounce, down $17. Suncor Energy Inc. rose 0.7 per cent while Barrick Gold Corp. fell 0.7 per cent.