Stocks rise, lifted by U.S. job growth

Banks and other stocks climbed Friday after the government reported more gains in hiring last month, the latest signal that the economy is continuing to hum along. The modest gains wrapped up another quiet week for the stock market.

Investors sold government bonds and bet that interest rates will rise. Technology companies rose. Weight Watchers soared after reporting a strong quarter. Viacom, the media company that owns Comedy Central and MTV, sank.

July was the second consecutive month of strong hiring, suggesting that the U.S. economy is still growing steadily as countries in Europe and less developed areas come out of long slumps.

“The economy is in pretty good shape,” said Paul Zemsky, chief investment officer for the multi-asset business of Voya Financial. “We’re seeing, for the first time, more of a globally synchronized growth.”

He said that will lead to a stronger global economy and will help American companies and stocks if growth in the U.S. falters.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.67 points, or 0.2%, to 2,476.83. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 66.71 points, or 0.3%, to 22,092.81. That was the Dow’s ninth gain in a row. The Nasdaq composite rose 11.22 points, or 0.2%, to 6,351.56. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies climbed 7.09 points, or 0.5%, to 1,412.32.

European stock indexes made even larger gains. France’s CAC 40 index climbed 1.4%, and the DAX in Germany jumped 1.2%. The British FTSE 100 went up 0.5%.

Bond prices dropped, sending yields higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed to 2.26% from 2.22% as investors concluded it is more likely the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again this year.

Higher interest rates enable banks to make more money on loans. Bank of America shares climbed 2.5%, to $24.98. KeyCorp ticked up 2.1% to $18.40.

Despite the gains Friday and the Dow’s long winning streak, most stocks have hardly moved over the last two weeks. The market barely reacted to news Thursday that special counsel Robert Mueller impaneled a grand jury as he continues to investigate Russia’s meddling in the U.S. presidential election.

Investors have consistently ignored surprising or unusual news out of Washington, and President Trump’s tweets don’t affect stocks the way they did six months ago.

Zemsky, of Voya, said that with the economy and corporate earnings doing well, investors will stay the course unless something much more dramatic happens.

“Selling stocks on a tweet or a news headline when the fundamentals are good is going to ultimately lead to losses,” he said.

Food delivery company Grubhub and online review site Yelp both jumped after Grubhub moved to expand its business by buying Yelp’s Eat24 unit. Along with the $287.5-million sale, the companies announced a deal that will let people reading Yelp reviews order food from restaurants that use Grubhub. Yelp soared 27.7% to $40.05. Grubhub jumped 9.1% to $52.62.

GoPro leaped 19.2% to $9.85 after the maker of action video cameras posted sales that were much stronger than expected.

Weight Watchers International soared 25.1% to $41.39 after it blew past analysts’ expectations and raised its forecasts for the year. The company said it had 20% more subscribers at the end of June than it did a year earlier.

Weight Watchers was worth less than $7 a share when Oprah Winfrey bought a 10% stake in 2015 and appeared in an ad for the company. It traded above $80 in early 2012.

Viacom sank 13.8% to $30.22 after it reported trouble with a financing deal with a Chinese company. Viacom said it didn’t receive a payment in June from Huahua Media, which agreed to help finance Paramount Pictures films as part of a deal that was struck in January.

Viacom also said subscribers to its cable networks fell in the third quarter, and in the current quarter, it expects a decline in the fees it receives from cable companies that carry its networks.

Among other cable network companies, Twenty-First Century Fox fell 1.3% to $28.46. Discovery Communications slid 4.1% to $23.73.

Consumers are streaming more shows and movies and look for ways to cut their bills, pressures that helped push Discovery to agree Monday to buy rival Scripps Networks. The stocks have slumped since Time Warner reported a drop in ad revenue in May.

Benchmark U.S. crude rose 55 cents, or 1.1%, to $49.58 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 41 cents to $52.42 a barrel in London.

Wholesale gasoline rose 1 cent to $1.65 a gallon. Heating oil gained 1 cent to $1.65 a gallon. Natural gas lost 3 cents to $2.77 per 1,000 cubic feet.

The dollar rose to 110.67 yen from 110.06 yen. The euro fell to $1.1769 from $1.1866.

Gold fell $9.80 to $1,264.60 an ounce. Silver dropped 38 cents, or 2.3%, to $16.25 an ounce. Copper rose 1 cent to $2.89 a pound.

In Asia, the Nikkei 225 index in Japan fell 0.4%, while South Korea’s Kospi added 0.4%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong edged up 0.1%.

UPDATES:

2:25 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comment.

This article was originally published at 6:55 a.m.