While you were sleeping: Wall Street rises to new highs as jobs surge

All three main Wall Street benchmarks climbed to record highs as the latest US jobs and manufacturing data bolstered expectations that the pace of economic growth will justify a Federal Reserve interest rate increase this month.

The US dollar strengthened while Treasury bonds slid. An ADP report showed US companies added 253,000 workers to payrolls in May, more than the 185,000 economists had expected.

"Job growth is rip-roaring," Mark Zandi, chief economist at Moody's Analytics, said in a statement, according to Bloomberg. Moody's produces the figures with ADP.

"The current pace of job growth is nearly three times the rate necessary to absorb growth in the labour force. Increasingly, businesses' number one challenge will be a shortage of labour."

Also, an Institute for Supply Management report showed its manufacturing index rose to 54.9 in May from 54.8 in April.

The latest data cemented bets that Fed policy makers will hike interest rates when they meet this month.

"It does help indicate continued and increasing strength in the overall US employment picture, which bodes very well for an impending Fed rate hike," Gain Capital's head of research James Chen wrote in a research note on the latest ADP data, Reuters reported.

Dow rises 135 points
At the close of trading in New York, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 135.53 points, or 0.65%, to 21,114.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.8% to 6246.83 and the Standard & Poor's 500 Index gained 0.8% to 2430.06. All three were new closing highs.

The Dow rose, led by gains in UnitedHealth and Goldman Sachs, while Nike and Verizon had the biggest percentage declines.

Shares of Canada's Saputo dropped 7.6% in Toronto after the Montréal-based company, which is one of the world's top-10 dairy processors, posted quarterly profit and revenue that fell short of expectations.

Saputo posted adjusted net earnings of $C165.2 million in the fourth quarter, up from $C164.8 million in the same quarter a year earlier. Revenues declined to $C2.72 billion, down from $C2.73 billion in the year-earlier quarter.

The earnings miss was due to a drop in the volume of cheese sales in the US, BMO analyst Peter Sklar said in a note, Reuters reported. "

"We consider this to be an unusually material miss for Saputo's US segment," Mr Sklar said.

The WSJ Dollar Index rose 0.2% while 10-year Treasury yields edged up to 2.217% from 2.198% on Wednesday. 

In Europe, the Stoxx 600 Index broke a five-day losing streak, rising 0.4%. The UK's FTSE 100 Index rose 0.3%, Germany's DAX Index added 0.4% and France's CAC40 Index gained 0.7%.

(BusinessDesk)