New York (AFP)

The New York Stock Exchange concluded sharply on Monday, on new records for the Dow Jones and the S&P 500, driven by good figures on US employment on Friday and the hope of a return to growth.

According to final results, the Dow Jones index gained 1.13% to 33,527.19 points, a new record.

Record also for the S&P 500 at 4,077.91 points, up 1.44%.

The technology-intensive Nasdaq advanced 1.67% to 13,705.59 points.

Monday was Wall Street's first session since the release of official U.S. jobs on Friday and the return of a three-day long weekend.

The US economy created as many as 916,000 new jobs last month, a seven-month high, and the unemployment rate fell to 6%, according to Labor Department data released Friday.

"The economic optimism sparked by this stronger-than-expected employment report continued on Monday in the markets and was also stimulated by strong growth in the service sector," Schwab analysts said.

The ISM service sector index posted historically high growth in March.

It stood at 63.7%, up 8.4 percentage points from February and a level never seen before, according to the ISM.

This figure, the tenth monthly increase in a row, is well above the expectations of analysts who expected 58.5%.

In a weak market, while several European markets were closed on Monday, investors were preparing for a week full of economic information, starting with a speech by Fed Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday, which will take place the day after publication of the minutes of the last monetary meeting of the Central Bank.

Apart from the energy sector which fell following a fall in crude oil prices, all sectors of the S&P were up, starting with consumer products (+ 2.28%) and services communication (+ 2.27%) and information technology (+ 2.02%).

"We should continue to have very good economic news", commented Patrick O'Hare of Briefing.com "but it's still the same story, namely how much is already integrated into the courses?"

In stocks, Tesla climbed 4.43% after announcing it delivered more vehicles than expected in the first quarter.

The big names in tech like Microsoft (+ 2.77%), Facebook (+ 3.43%), Apple (+ 2.36%) drove the increase.

Google (Alphabet), which won a copyright battle in the Supreme Court over Oracle, gained 4.11% to climb to $ 2,225.55 per share, a record high.

The bond rate on the 10-year US debt was instead down to 1.70% at 8:30 p.m. GMT.

© 2021 AFP