Stocks listed on the New York Stock Exchange continued their recovery on Friday following the March jobs report from the US Bureau of Labor Statistics. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.4%, while the S&P 500 gained 0.3%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average edged 0.1% higher.
303,000 jobs were added in March, vastly outperforming the rise of 205,000 that was predicted by Wall Street analysts. The unemployment rate declined from 3.9% to 3.8% on a monthly basis. The main source of growth came from the healthcare industry, which added 72,300 jobs, followed by 71,000 government jobs.
In commodities, oil prices rose on the back of rising Middle East tensions, threatening to bottleneck supplies. West Texas Intermediate futures rose to $86.60 per barrel, while international benchmark Brent crude futures rose past $91 per barrel.