By Ovunc Kutlu
ANKARA (AA) – The US stock market opened higher Friday as weak jobs data have calmed fears of investors about the possibility of a rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The Dow Jones rose a new record high of 34,578 points at the first bell before retreating to 34,552 at 9.40 a.m. EDT (1340GMT).
While the S&P 500 added 15 points to 4,217, the Nasdaq jumped 100 points, or 0.7%, to 13,733 with Zoom Video and Twitter rising 2.8% and 1.4%, respectively.
US economy added only 266,000 jobs in April, much lower than estimate of a 978,000 increase, according to the Department of Labor earlier.
The data indicated that labor market is still weak in the world's largest economy, and it has a long way until full recovery that the Fed awaits in order to raise interest rates.
Investors have been worried in recent weeks that the central bank would signal making a rate hike before 2023, which it earlier has shown as a target.
As such worries were subdued, the VIX volatility index fell more than 2% below 18 level. The yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds was also down 0.1% to 1.559%.
While gold was up 1.1% to $1,834 at the time, silver gained 0.5% to $27.4.
