Job surge pushes Wall Street to record highs

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Fireworks on Wall Street to mark this weekend’s Independence Day holiday and a Wall Street trifecta. The Dow, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each set fresh record closing highs on Friday.

The Dow rallied 152 points. The S&P 500 jumped 32 points to its 7th straight closing high. The Nasdaq rose 116 points.

This time the jobs report did not disappoint. U.S. employers added a stronger-than-expected 850,000 new jobs in June with industries the hardest-hit over the past year doing the most hiring. The leisure and hospitality industry accounted for 40% of the employment gains made last month. There was additional good news for workers. Average paychecks are 3.6 percent fatter on an annual basis. The unemployment rate, however, went up to 5.9 percent.

Markets like that this jobs report does little to change the outlook for the Federal Reserve, says Kevin Mahn, president of Hennion & Walsh Asset Management.

"I believe that stubborn labor participation rate and the high number of Americans aren't actively seeking employment is going to cause the Fed to wait a little bit longer before they start to consider raising interest rates. So in all likelihood, we're going to have record low interest rates not only for the remainder of this year, but the remainder of 2022 as well."

In corporate news: Billionaire entrepreneur Richard Branson is looking to take the lead in the race for space. He will travel to the edge of the atmosphere on a Virgin Galactic test flight on July 11, leapfrogging Blue Origin's Jeff Bezos, who thought he was going be the first billionaire in space on a July 20th suborbital flight. Shares of Virgin Galactic climbed 4 percent.

Just days after a U.S. stock market debut, Chinese regulators have hit the brakes on Didi Global, the Chinese version of Uber. China's cyberspace administration said it would conduct a new investigation into the Chinese ride-hailing giant to protect national security and the public interest. During the probe, Didi will not be able to register new users. Shares of Didi slid 5 percent lower.

Jim Whitehurst, who played a major role in IBM's acquisition of Red Hat two years ago, will step down from his position as president at IBM. The management shake-up sent shares of IBM down 4.6 percent.