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| - Wall Street equities rebounded at the open Friday, cheered by upbeat headline jobs gains while ignoring some less pleasant underlying details and inflation implications that sank share prices in recent days. About 15 minutes into the week's final trading session, the benchmark Dow Jones Industrial Average had regained some of the ground lost Thursday, and was up 0.6 percent to 31,110.04. The broad-based S&P 500 was up 0.5 percent to 3,788.92, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index was the biggest loser, rose 0.2 percent to 12,745.56. Despite the gain, the Nasdaq is close to correction territory, nearly 10 percent below its last peak on February 12. The US economy added a 379,000 jobs in February and the unemployment rate dipped slightly to 6.2 percent, the Labor Department said, far stronger than economists were expecting. But most of the gains were in the bars and restaurants which have begun to open their doors, while other areas shed workers. And unemployment for Black workers increased to 9.9 percent. "The key takeaway from the report is that it will be seen as a sign of even better things to come for the labor market, which bodes well for growth prospects," Briefing.com analyst Patrick J O'Hare said. "The increase in nonfarm payrolls was much better than expected and that is in front of more states seemingly destined to relax Covid restrictions in coming months as vaccination rates improve," he said. Investors in recent weeks have been more concerned about the possibility the economic recovery will ignite inflation and raise borrowing costs. They have kept a wary eye on the rising yield on 10-year US Treasury notes -- a red flag for inflation -- despite assurances the Federal Reserve has no plans to raise interest rates and will not be bothered by short-term price spikes. The positive jobs data sent the yield surging to above 1.6 percent, but investors seemed more interested in snapping up low-priced shares. hs/jm
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