By msnbc.com news services
Stocks were higher Friday after another strong monthly jobs report showed the economic recovery was broadening.
The mood was slightly bullish after Greece completed the negotiation of the biggest sovereign debt restructuring in history, an issue that has kept investors skittish.
However, stock prices slipped a little in afternoon trading after the agency that oversees financial derivatives said the debt relief deal for Greece is a credit event, meaning it will trigger payouts on bond insurance.
The decision means holders of credit default swaps on Greek debt will be able to claim insurance payments after Greece’s decision to force holders of its debt into a bond swap.
The S&P 500 faced strong technical resistance as it approached its highest level in nearly four years.
Bank shares, among the most sensitive to growth expectations and the euro-zone crisis, led the advance, with the KBW bank index up 1.4 percent. Citigroup added 2.1 percent to $34.71 and JPMorgan Chase rose 1.9 percent to $41.22.
"Today's data was moving in the right direction," said Ken Polcari, managing director at ICAP Equities in New York. "Temporarily Greece has been taken off the front burner so the focus shifts back to the U.S. economy."
An index of basic materials shares also advanced alongside the Reuters/Jefferies commodities index, despite a broad rally in the dollar, which could pressure the prices of greenback-denominated commodities. The gains underscore the current focus on the economic recovery.
Exactly three years ago, the S&P 500 posted a 12-year closing low at 676.53 during the height of the financial crisis. The index has more than doubled since then, although it stalled last year before resuming a rally in 2012.
Employers added 227,000 jobs to their payrolls in February, government data showed, while the unemployment rate held at a three-year low of 8.3 percent even as people flooded back into the labor force to hunt for jobs.
Shares of Monster Worldwide Inc , an online employment agency whose stock is sensitive to changes in the employment outlook, rose 4.1 percent to $8.96.
Shares of Green Mountain Coffee Roasters Inc sank 15.4 percent to $52.82 on fears it may lose its near monopoly in the single-cup coffee market after Starbucks Corp outlined plans to launch a rival coffee machine. Starbucks rose 2.2 percent to $51.49.
Among the signs that China's economy appears likely to avoid a hard landing, the country's annual rate of consumer inflation slowed to a 20-month low in February, while factory output and retail sales also cooled. The data give policymakers ample room to further loosen monetary policy, analysts said.
Reuters contributed to this report.
