Stocks rise to “rare state” as US rate hike next week “a near certainty”

Markets rose on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.3 percent, the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.1 percent and the Nikkei 225 jumped 1.5 percent.

A report on Friday showed that the US economy added 235,000 jobs in February.

Karyn Cavanaugh, senior market strategist at Voya Financial, said that the “jobs report is an affirmation of everything else we’ve been seeing on the data front” while Jasper Lawler, senior market analyst at London Capital Group, said that it “makes a rate hike at next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve a near certainty”.

Meanwhile, Business Insider quoted CNBC's Michael Santoli as saying: “Stocks in a rare state, crossing above 20x P/E w/ 20% gain over the past year.”

That is based on a chart from Brian Belski, chief investment strategist at BMO Capital Markets, who also said in a note: “U.S. stocks remain in the midst of a secular bull market with many years of life left to it.”