videoU.S. equity and bond markets are closed on Friday, July 3 for the observance of the Independence Day holiday.
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Markets advanced in Asia on Friday following a Wall Street rally driven by strong jobs data.
Tokyo’s Nikkei picked up 0.7 percent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gained 0.9 percent, China’s Shanghai Composite jumped 2 percent.
European markets are open and trading. London’s FTSE is down 1.1 percent, Germany’s DAX is sliding 0.6 percent and France’s CAC is off 1 percent.
In Thursday’s Wall Street session, the S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent, its fourth-straight gain, ending the holiday-shortened week with a gain of 4 percent.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.4 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 0.5 percent.
| Ticker | Security | Last | Change | Change % |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| I:DJI | DOW JONES AVERAGES | 25827.36 | +92.39 | +0.36% |
| SP500 | S&P 500 | 3130.01 | +14.15 | +0.45% |
| I:COMP | NASDAQ COMPOSITE INDEX | 10207.628547 | +53.00 | +0.52% |
The U.S. government said employers added 4.8 million jobs to their payrolls in June for the second-straight month of growth. The unemployment rate remains very high at 11.1 percent, but last month’s improvement was much better than economists expected.
US ECONOMY CREATED 4.8M JOBS LAST MONTH: THESE INDUSTRIES SAW THE BIGGEST GAINS
Many workers across the country are still experiencing economic pain, with only about a third of the 22 million jobs lost to the recession recovered so far.
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Benchmark U.S. crude oil for August delivery slipped 62 cents to $40.03 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. It rose 83 cents Thursday to settle at $40.65 a barrel. Brent crude oil for September delivery dropped 64 cents to $42.50 a barrel.
The Associated Press contributed to this article.