MarketView for June 6

Summary

The major equity indexes rallied on Friday, with the Dow Jones industrial average and the S&P 500 indexes closing at records, after the May payrolls report provided the latest confirmation of improving economic conditions. At the same time, the CBOE Volatility index, Wall Street's so-called fear gauge, ended down 8.1 percent at 10.73, its lowest level since February 2007. The VIX, which tends to rise when volatility increases or the market drops, has been on the decline for months and is well below its historical average of 20.

The day's gains were broad and led by cyclical sectors, which outperform in times of economic expansion. Industrial shares jumped 1 percent while energy shares rose 0.8 percent. The only S&P 500 sector that fell was healthcare, a defensive group, down 0.1 percent.

The Labor Department reported that approximately 217,000 jobs were added in May, slightly fewer than expected, while the unemployment rate held steady at 6.3 percent. This was the first time job growth has topped 200,000 for four consecutive months since January 2000.

With the day's gains, the S&P 500 marked its sixth record close in the past seven sessions. For the week, the Dow was up 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 chalked up a gain of 1.3 percent and the Nasdaq was up 1.9 percent.

Joy Global rose 3.9 percent to $64.11, building on its 6.7 percent rally on Thursday on the back on strong results, for its largest weekly gain since August 2012.

Peabody Energy Corp was the biggest percentage decliner on the S&P 500, dropping 1.4 percent at $16.34 after Goldman Sachs downgraded the stock to "neutral."

Hertz Global Holdings fell 9.1 percent to $27.73. The car rental company said it would restate financial results for the past three years to correct accounting errors.

Novavax was the Nasdaq's most active stock, down 7.9 percent to $4.17 in heavy volume a day after a public offering of 25 million common shares was priced at a discount to its Thursday close.

Approximately 5.27 billion shares changed hands on the major equity exchanges, a number that was below last month's average of 5.75 billion shares, according to data from BATS Global Markets.