US stocks climb; Dow closes above key 8,000 level
04 Apr 2009 8:56 AM
US stocks shrugged off a dismal March jobs report to end higher this morning .. capping their fourth weekly gain amid market expectations that the economic contraction is easing.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 39.51 points (0.50 per cent) at 8,017.59 .. closing above the the psychological 8,000 level for the first time since February 9.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite climbed 19.24 points (1.20 per cent) to 1,621.87.
The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index was up 8.12 points (0.97 per cent) to 842.50.
The S & P index had advanced 3.2 per cent this week.
The market had opened mostly lower after the Labor Department reported the US unemployment rate in March leapt to a 25-year high of 8.5 per cent .. as recession-battered employers shed another 663 thousand jobs.
