NEW YORK - Stocks advanced for a fifth straight day Friday, capping a five-week rally in the Standard & Poor's 500 Index, as faster-than-forecast employment growth bolstered optimism about the economy. The S&P 500 added 0.4 percent to a two-year high of 1,225.85, as the government said payrolls climbed 151,000 in October. The benchmark index rose every day this week, the first time that's happened during a five-day week since March. The Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 9.24 points, or 0.1 percent, to 11,444.08. 'It's a mistake to be bearish here,' said Jeff Saut, chief investment strategist at Raymond James & Associates in St. Petersburg, Fla. 'I don't think the economy is as weak as all the talking heads have been indicating. The jobs report was better than expected. Profits are going to continue to be good. Any correction in stocks will be short and shallow.' The S&P 500 ended the week with a gain of 3.6 percent, its fifth straight weekly advance and the longest rally since April, as the Fed announced plans to buy $600 billion in bonds and elections produced a divided Congress that's unlikely to pass further business reforms. Futures erased an earlier drop as the increase in payrolls reported by the Labor Department beat all estimates in a Bloomberg News survey of economists, following a revised 41,000 drop the prior month that was smaller than initially estimated. Private payrolls that exclude government agencies also gained more than forecast, while the jobless rate held at 9.6 percent. 'It's a strong jobs report,' said Barry Knapp, chief U.S. equity strategist at Barclays in New York. 'Those figures taken in conjunction with everything else we've seen this week set a very positive backdrop for the equity market.' The Citigroup Economic Surprise index for the U.S., which gauges the rate at which economic data is exceeding or trailing economists' estimates, has risen for 11 straight days and turned positive on Oct. 29. Its gain in the last month is the biggest in its history going back to 2003, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. A measure of financial companies jumped 2.1 percent, the biggest gain in the S&P 500 among 10 industries. JPMorgan rose 2.9 percent to $40.94. Wells Fargo added 6.4 percent to $29.22. 'It now looks highly likely that the dividends for a number of banks will be increased,' Rochdale Securities analyst Dick Bove, who is based in Lutz, Fla., said in a telephone interview. 'Do they have the capacity to dramatically increase their dividends? The answer is definitely yes. They have enormous capacity to increase their earnings from a balance sheet standpoint.' Massey surged 11 percent to $46.94. The Wall Street Journal said the company is weighing a takeover offer from Alpha Natural Resources. Massey, the largest coal producer in Central Appalachia, has plunged 14 percent since an April 5 blast at the operation near Montcoal, W.Va., which was the worst U.S. coal mining accident in 40 years. Starbucks rose 3.8 percent to $30.87. The world's largest coffee shop operator posted adjusted earnings of 37 cents a share, exceeding the average of analysts' estimates by 5 cents on higher foot traffic and Via instant coffee sales. Kraft Foods fell 2.2 percent to $31.08. The world's second-largest food company that bought Cadbury in February posted third-quarter sales of $11.86 billion, missing the average analyst estimate by 1.1 percent. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke's attempt to boost U.S. economic growth helped send stocks to the highest level since 2008 and has broken the correlation between stocks and bonds, according to Bloomberg data. 'That correlation is breaking down because you've got a third party, i.e. the Fed, manipulating the Treasury market,' said Walter Todd, co-chief investment officer at Greenwood, S.C.-based Greenwood Capital. 'What you should see in a recovery is yields going up and stock prices going up at the same time.' With assistance from Whitney Kisling and Lu Wang in New York. 