NEW YORK, April 1 (Reuters) - U.S. stocks started a traditionally healthy month on strong footing on Friday with solid jobs figures, but the S&P 500 may need help to break to new multi-year highs.
The Dow Jones industrial average was up 56.99 points, or 0.46 percent, to close unofficially at 12,376.72. The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 6.58 points, or 0.50 percent, to finish unofficially at 1,332.41. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 8.53 points, or 0.31 percent, to end unofficially at 2,789.60.
For the week, the Dow was up 1.3 percent, the S&P 500 rose 1.4 percent and the Nasdaq gained 1.7 percent. (Reporting by Angela Moon, Editing by Jan Paschal)