Wall St. opens near record highs as grim jobs data fuels stimulus hopes

By Medha Singh, Reuters

Wall Street’s main indexes opened near all-time highs on Friday as worse-than-expected jobs growth in November spurred bets of a new fiscal stimulus package to help lift the economy from its worst downturn in decades.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.0 points, or 0.07%, at the open to 29989.56. The S&P 500 rose 4.2 points, or 0.12%, at the open to 3670.94, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 22.1 points, or 0.18%, to 12399.322 at the opening bell.