Nasdaq ends at record as global stocks cheers strong US jobs growth
The Nasdaq logo is displayed at the Nasdaq Market site
The tech-rich Nasdaq powered to a fresh record Friday as Wall Street cheered a much better than expected US jobs report for April.
European bourses also advanced following the US report, which set unemployment at a 49-year low.
"No signs of a slowdown here," said James Knightley, chief international economist at ING.
The US economy added 263,000 net new positions in April, well above the 200,000 forecasts by analysts.
Unemployment fell two tenths to 3.6 per cent but the decline was in part because the pool of workers shrank and fewer people were looking for jobs, pulling them out of the labour force, the Labor Department reported.
Even with the positive attributes to the April jobs data, the report showed wage inflation was measured, putting little pressure on the US Federal Reserve to boost interest rates, analysts said.
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"Neither too hot nor too cold," said Stephen Innes, head of trading at SPI, calling the US data "another Goldilocks" payroll report.
"The US economy remains in the sweet spot with extremely robust labour markets driving strong consumption growth but apparently without stoking the inflationary fires," he said.
The tech-rich Nasdaq climbed 1.6 per cent to 8,164.00, about two points above a record earlier in the week.
Bourses in London, Paris and Frankfurt advanced modestly.
Despite the strong jobs data, FTN Financial's Chris Low pointed to a report from the Institute for Supply Management that showed slowing services sector activity.
"I don't think everything is quite as rosy as the jobs numbers suggest but for now traders are happy," FTN Financial's Chris Low told AFP.
Low said investors were also cheered by news that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway had invested in Amazon, which jumped 3.2 per cent.
"It's him (Buffett) signing off the on the US stock market rally," Low said. "It's not like him to make a high-profile buy at a market top."
The billionaire all-star investor disclosed the move in an interview with CNBC. Buffett previously has lamented not getting into Amazon at an earlier stage, blaming "stupidity" for missing the opportunity in a 2017 interview.
In commodities trading on Friday, oil prices rebounded after falling hard on Thursday in the wake of a surprisingly large build in US oil inventories. Some analysts viewed the increase as a reflection of the improved demand outlook for the US following the strong jobs data.