U.S. Jobs Report Gives Stocks a Lift Stocks rose sharply on Friday as the government's monthly snapshot of the jobs market showed some vigor in the United States economy in January. The Dow Jones industrial average closed at its highest level since May 2008. At the end of trading, the Dow was at 12,862.23, up 156.82 points, or 1.2 percent. The Standard & Poor's 500-stock index was 1.5 percent higher, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite had a gain of 1.6 percent. The Nasdaq's close of 2,905.66 was its highest since December 2000, when the boom in Internet stocks was turning to bust. All three indexes have come off a strong start to the year, ending the month of January higher, with the broader market up more than 4 percent in its biggest January gain since 1997. Recent economic reports have painted a picture of a slow economic recovery, and the Labor Department report gave equities more fuel for the trend of gains in the markets. It said the United States economy added 243,000 jobs, the second straight month of better-than-expected growth, and the unemployment rate fell to 8.3 percent. It also revised its estimates upward for job growth in November and December. By the afternoon, the United States benchmark 10-year Treasury yield was up to 1.928 percent, compared with 1.82 percent on Thursday. Steve Blitz, the chief economist at ITG Investment Research, said factors like warm weather and seasonal hiring affected January's employment trend. "The bigger picture, however, is that the overall employment situation is improving and manufacturing is leading the way," he said in a research commentary. Stocks had recently come through a bout of decreased volatility as investors priced in the latest developments in the European debt crisis and persistent worries about economic growth, both in the United States and globally. Michael Hood, the global markets strategist for JPMorgan Asset Management, said the flow of improving data from the United States has helped to propel stock gains. He said the 10-year Treasury had been fluctuating within its trading range of around 2 percent since November. Mr. Hood also noted that United States and global markets were increasingly diverging, compared with the second half of last year in which major markets were more or less moving in step with one another in a risk-off, risk-on trading. But he said investors" concerns over fiscal policy, the euro zone, and weakness in economic sectors like housing in the United States could return. "We have got tailwinds coming from what looks like genuine improvement in the economic climate in many parts of the world," he said. For the time being we are trading off much better sentiment.