US STOCKS-Wall St climbs 1% as historic job losses fewer than feared

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* US economy suffers Great Depression-like job losses
* Indexes on track for solid weekly gains
* Uber climbs as ride service bookings recover
* Indexes up: Dow 1.22%, S&P 1.14%, Nasdaq 1.07%

(Updates to mid afternoon)
By Lewis Krauskopf
May 8 (Reuters) - Major U.S. stock indexes climbed on Friday
and were on track to log solid gains for the week after data
showing historic job losses from the coronavirus crisis were
slightly fewer than feared.
All 11 S&P 500 sectors were positive, led by energy .SPNY
and materials .SPLRCM .
The U.S. economy lost 20.5 million jobs in April, the Labor
Department reported. Economists polled by Reuters had forecast
payrolls diving by 22 million, but the decline still marked the
steepest plunge since the Great Depression. “It's tough to call the jobs report, which is what everybody
was waiting for, anything but a complete calamity, but relative
to expectations you can see some silver linings in there,” said
Brian Nick, chief investment strategist at Nuveen, pointing to
the large number of temporary layoffs.
“Except for the initial panic in the month of March, in
general the markets are ignoring economic data for the most part
and are looking more at data related to COVID-19,” Nick said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 291.02 points,
or 1.22%, to 24,166.91, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 32.84 points,
or 1.14%, to 2,914.03 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC added
96.01 points, or 1.07%, to 9,075.67.
Financial markets on Thursday began pricing in a negative
U.S. interest rate environment for the first time, as investors
grappled with the economic consequences of the new coronavirus
outbreak. Stocks have staged a sharp rebound since late March from the
coronavirus-fueled sell-off, helped by massive monetary and
fiscal stimulus. The tech-heavy Nasdaq on Thursday erased its
2020 declines and turned positive for the year.
Investors are now watching efforts by a number of states to
spark their economies by easing restrictions put in place to
fight the outbreak.
“Several states are relaxing their stay-at-home orders now
and governments and businesses have stepped up to support many
workers and companies, but it remains to be seen what the new
normal will look like," said Tony Bedikian, head of global
markets at Citizens Bank.
Optimism for markets was also fed by news overnight that
U.S. and Chinese trade representatives discussed their Phase 1
trade deal, with China saying they agreed to improve the
atmosphere for its implementation. In company news, Uber Technologies UBER.N shares rose 5.9%
after the company said ride service bookings slowly recovered in
recent weeks. Noble Energy NBL.O shares gained 10.7% after the company
said on Friday it would curtail oil production and further cut
its capital spending to cope with a plunge in oil prices.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a
4.68-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 3.19-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 10 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the
Nasdaq Composite recorded 57 new highs and one new low.