Yesterday's US economic data were better than expected. Reuters reports:
The Labor Department said on Friday that 20,000 jobs were shed last month, far fewer than the 80,000 that economists had anticipated. The national unemployment rate, which is compiled from a separate survey, unexpectedly fell to 5 percent from 5.1 percent in March...
A report at mid-morning from the Commerce Department [showed] a stronger-than-expected 1.4 percent rise in March U.S. factory orders...
Just before the employment figures were issued, the Fed announced fresh action to add liquidity to credit markets, increasing the size of some cash auctions for financial institutions as well.
The US stock market could not take full advantage though. Reuters reports:
U.S. stocks made modest gains on Friday after jobs data that offered fresh evidence the economic slowdown is not as severe as feared, but technology shares faded on a surprise loss from Sun Microsystems Inc...
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 48.20 points, or 0.37 percent, at 13,058.20. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.56 points, or 0.32 percent, at 1,413.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.72 points, or 0.15 percent, at 2,476.99.
For the week, the Dow gained 1.3 percent, the S&P rose 1.2 percent and the Nasdaq advanced 2.2 percent.
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