Stocks gain for sixth day on strong jobs growth

Source: AP-Excite

By STEVE ROTHWELL

NEW YORK (AP) - A burst of hiring in February pushed stocks higher on Wall Street.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 67.58 points, or 0.5 percent, to 14,397.07. The index surpassed its previous record close Tuesday and logged a sixth straight increase Friday.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 6.92 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,551.18. The Nasdaq composite advanced 12.28 points, or 0.4 percent, to 3,244.37.

U.S. employers added 236,000 jobs last month and the unemployment rate fell to 7.7 percent from 7.9 percent in January, the Labor Department reported. That's far better than the 156,000 job gains and unemployment rate of 7.8 percent that economists surveyed by FactSet expected.

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Traders work in their booth on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange Friday, March 8, 2013. Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street after the government reported a burst of hiring last month that sent the unemployment rate to a four-year low. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)