Stocks Closed Higher, Led by Financial Shares

U.S. stocks closed higher on Friday, powered by gains in financial shares as President Donald Trump moved ahead with deregulation action and by a strong payrolls report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 186.55 points, or 0.73%, to 20,071.46. The S&P 500 climbed 16.57 points, or 0.73%, to 2,297.42. The Nasdaq Composite rose 30.57 points, or 0.54%. to 5,666.77. For the week, the Dow dipped 0.1% while both the S&P and the Nasdaq rose 0.1%.

President Donald Trump is planning to sign an executive order Friday that will scale back the 2010 Dodd-Frank regulations, that were put in place to prevent another crisis and avoid the massive tax-payer-funded bailouts that were a controversial feature of the government’s rescue of the sector at that time.

In January, the US economy added 227,000 jobs while the unemployment rate rose slightly to 4.8%. Wage gains in January, however, were a disappointment, as average hourly earnings rose just 0.1% over the prior month and 2.5% over last year.

Oil futures saw a modest gain Friday to finish higher for the week, buoyed by more data backing up production cuts by major oil producers. March West Texas Intermediate crude tacked on 29 cents, or 0.5%, to settle at $53.83 a barrel. April Brent crude rose 25 cents, or 0.4%, to $56.81 a barrel.