By Yasin Ebrahim
Investing.com – Wall Street rallied Wednesday on signs the worst of the Covid-19 pandemic's hit to the economy may be over following better-than-feared labor market and services data.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.56%, or 402 points, the S&P 500 gained 1.11%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.57%.
With just days to go until Friday's crucial nonfarm payrolls, ADP (NASDAQ:ADP) reported that private payrolls fell by 2.76 million jobs in May, confounding economists' expectations for a drop of 9 million.
That marked a significant improvement from the 19.5 million job cuts seen in April, raising hopes the labor market losses have bottomed.
The services sector, which accounts for about two-thirds of overall economic growth, is also showing signs of life, with activity rising from the lowest level in 11 years in April.
Institute for Supply Management data for May showed a reading of 45.4, above forecasts for a reading of 44.0.
The duo of upbeat economic reports stoked investor hopes of a quicker economic recovery, underpinning cyclical sectors like financials and industrials.
Financials were up nearly 4%, with banks leading the charge. JPMorgan (NYSE:NYSE:JPM) was up 5.3%, Bank of America (NYSE:NYSE:BAC) up 4.8% and Citigroup (NYSE:NYSE:C) up 5.2%.
In industrials, Boeing (NYSE:BA) rallied 10% after reaching a compensation package and a new delivery deal with travel company TUI Group over the grounding of its 737 Max planes.
On the earnings front, Zoom Video Communications (NASDAQ:ZM) jumped 6% after reporting first-quarter results that markedly beat expectations on bottom and top lines as the pandemic spurred demand for its videoconferencing software.
Canada Goose (NYSE:GOOS) rose 15% after reporting fiscal fourth-quarter earnings.
Elsewhere, Warner Music (NASDAQ:WMG) made a bright start to life as a publicly-traded company, rallying 17%. The music label company had priced its offering of 77 million stock at $25 per share.