US stocks surge as unemployment falls to 3.9 percent

Markets were mixed on Friday.

The S&P 500 surged 1.3 percent and the STOXX Europe 600 rose 0.6 percent but Asian stocks fell, with the Hang Seng plunging 1.3 percent.

A report on Friday showed that the US economy created 164,000 new jobs in April, below the 188,000 that had been expected. However, the unemployment rate fell to 3.9 percent from 4.1 percent, the first time the jobless rate has dropped below 4 percent since the end of 2000.

Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Wunderlich Securities, said that “there was as much good news as bad news in the jobs report, with the good news being no wage pressure to add to inflation fears, and an unemployment rate with a three-handle. It’s really the best-case scenario”.