U.S. stock benchmarks opened sharply higher Thursday morning after a closely followed report on the health of the labor market showed that the U.S. added 4.76 million jobs in June and the unemployment fell to 11.1% from 13.3% in May, suggesting that the employment picture is improving after a stunning collapse due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Economists polled by MarketWatch had predicted 3.7 million jobs were created or restored in June, with some estimates ranging as high as 8 million. Meanwhile, a separate report showed that Americans filed for 1.43 million new unemployment claims in the latest week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.35% rose 356 points, or 1.4%, at 26,085, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.45% added 36 points, or 1.2%, at 3,152, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.52% opened at an intraday record at 10,272, and was trading 1.2% higher. In corporate news, shares of Tesla Inc. TSLA, +7.95% were trading sharply higher after a Wedbush analyst boosted his stock price target to $2,000 and after the electric-vehicle maker released a better-than-expected sales report. U.S. financial markets will be closed on Friday and the bond market will close an hour early at 2 p.m. Eastern time on Thursday with the Independence Day holiday observed on Friday instead of July 4th.
