Stocks soar after jobs report
Wall Street is cheering the better-than-expected June jobs report.
Futures had been pointing to about a 1% rise at the opening bell before the jobs numbers were released — but after the upbeat report, the Dow started the day with a gain of 1.5%, or more than 380 points.
The US economy added 4.8 million jobs in June, bringing the unemployment rate down to 11.1%.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each rose about 1.2%, with the Nasdaq hitting a new all-time high. Big tech stocks Microsoft, Amazon and Netflix were all trading at new records.
Tesla continued its meteoric rise as well, surging 8% to a new peak above $1,200 a share. Tesla also announced Thursday that it produced more than 82,000 vehicles in the second quarter and delivered nearly 91,000 cars — mostly its more affordable Model 3 and Model Y.
Elon Musk’s electric car company has now soared nearly 200% this year. Tesla is worth over $225 billion, more than blue chip companies Coca-Cola and Disney as well as many other stocks in the Dow and S&P 500.
Track America’s recovery — from your job to your investments
Shares of Big Pharma leader Pfizer and Germany’s BioNTech continued to rally one day after the two drug companies announced “encouraging” data from an early study of a Covid-19 vaccine that the two companies are developing.
