NEW YORK, April 7: The US stock market posted healthy gains in the past week and market participants are voicing optimism following a stronger-than-anticipated report on the job market.

The week ahead marks the kick off of the first quarter corporate earnings season for major US companies.

Friday's report from the Labour Department showing that a robust 180,000 new jobs were created in March, against forecasts that had expected just 135,000 new posts, should support the market when trading resumes Monday, said Dick Green, a president at Briefing.com.

This should ease concerns that weakness in the housing and manufacturing sectors will slow down consumer spending significantly, Green said.

The stock market was closed Friday in observance of Good Friday.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average of 30 blue chips rose 1.67 per cent in the week to close Thursday at 12,560.20.

The broad-market Standard & Poor's 500 index gained 1.61 per cent to 1,443.76 while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose a stronger 2.05 per cent to 2,471.34.

Analysts said the release of the minutes from the Federal Reserve's last interest rate meeting will likely generate keen interest in the week ahead.

The Fed opted to leave its key federal funds interest rate anchored at 5.25 per cent on March 21st, and backed off from a reference to “firming” or hiking rates amid a slowing down of the world's biggest economy.

The Fed's March statement fueled hopes of a rate cut sometime soon, but analysts were divided on the significance of the central bank's shift and say they will be keen to pour over the minutes which are due to be released Wednesday.

We'll see exactly what they meant by their statement, said Art Hogan, a market analyst at Jefferies.

Other market observers said investors are keeping their spirits up ahead of the looming earnings season.

Michael Malone, an analyst at Cowen & Co., said: “Investors are getting more comfortable with the general economic outlook. Investors are growing less concerned with regards to the subprime (mortgage) issue. Frederic Dickson, a chief market strategist at D.A. Davidson & Co., said investor sentiment would likely remain upbeat in the coming week.

The current market environment should produce modest market gains unless the upcoming earnings season produces some very nasty surprises, he said.

Al Goldman, a chief market strategist at A.G. Edwards, said corporate America's earnings growth is likely to remain robust.

We project a seven-to-eight percent increase in earnings by the S&P 500 for 2007, Goldman said.

It is important to remember that this economic slowdown was engineered by the Fed and is designed to keep the economy from boiling over and creating rampant inflation, Goldman added.

—AFP