US stocks fly 1.3% on modest May jobs report

US stocks jumped 1.3 percent Friday as investors took a report of continuing modest gains in job creation in May to suggest that the Federal Reserve will not reel in its stimulus in the short run. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 207.50 points (1.38 percent) to 15,248.12. The broad-based S&P 500 put on 20.82 (1.28 percent) to 1,643.38, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index added 45.17 (1.32 percent) to 3,469.22. The Labor Department said 175,000 jobs were generated in May, better than pessimistic expectations, but still only at the same moderate pace of the past year. The report "reflects improvement in the economy, but not so much improvement as to suggest that the Fed will alter its policy course," said Briefing.com economist Patrick O'Hare. Yet bond yields rose and the dollar moved higher as traders in those markets read the data as confirming the Fed will begin pulling back its aggressive bond-buying program sometime later this year. Boeing (+2.7 percent) and Disney (+2.7 percent) topped gainers on the Dow while AT&T, hit by allegations that it shared customer data with the US spy agency, lost 1.0 percent. Shares of Iron Mountain, the data storage and management firm, plunged 15.8 percent amid tax regulator questions about its plan to convert into a lower-tax real estate investment trust or REIT. Data-handling competitor Equinix, also with plans to become a REIT, lost 5.5 percent. TV recorder maker TiVo sank 19 percent after the $490 million payout it received from Google and Cisco systems to settle alleged violations of its patents came in much lower than TiVo shareholders had expected. Power company Edison International gained 2.7 percent after announcing that it would permanently close its 40-year-old San Onofre, California, nuclear power plant, dogged by safety troubles and public controversy since 2012. Retail giant Walmart's new $15 billion share repurchase plan gave it a 0.9 percent boost. Monsanto, whose shares had stumbled amid fresh controversy over its genetically modified seeds program, jumped 2.9 percent after it announced a $2 billion repurchase program. Clothier Gap rose 2.7 percent helped by news that May sales were up 11 percent from last year. Bond prices sank. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury rose to 2.16 percent from 2.08 percent late Thursday, while the 30-year increased to 3.32 percent from 3.26 percent. Bond prices move inversely to yield.