Jobs, sales data spark US stocks jump

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 93.47 points (0.74 per cent) to 12,719.49.

The broader S&P 500 rallied 14.00 points (1.05 per cent) to stand at 1,353.22, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite rose 38.64 points (1.36 per cent) to 2,872.66.

Stocks jumped on encouraging jobs data from the payrolls firm ADP, its monthly index showing that private non-farm businesses added 157,000 jobs in June, a solid jump after the weak 36,000 increase from April to May.

Adding to the buying strength was a report showing that US chain-store sales rose by 6.9 per cent in June from a year earlier, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

"This session's bullish bias has been bolstered by a better-than-expected ADP Employment Report, which portends a positive reading for the official nonfarm payrolls report on Friday," said analysts at Briefing.com.

The government releases its data for June on job creation and unemployment on Friday, and investors and economists eagerly await it as one of the key indicators of how the overall economy is performing.

JP Morgan Chase rose 2.1 per cent despite news it would have to pay $228 million to settle accusations in a muni bond price-fixing scandal that also involve Bank of America and UBS.

Research in Motion added 4.8 per cent after it tweeted the news that it had added one million subscribers in the Europe-Middle East-Africa region in under three weeks.

Shares of pharmaceuticals giant Pfizer lost 2.9 per cent after the company announced it would sell its animal health and infant nutrition businesses, saying "their value may be best maximized outside the company."

The businesses brought in revenues together of $5.5 billion last year.

Bond prices fell in the wake of an increase of the key euro interest rate by the European Central Bank.

The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note rose to 3.15 per cent from 3.10 per cent late Wednesday, while that on the 30-year bond climbed to 4.37 per cent from 4.35 per cent.

Bond prices and yields move in opposite directions.