The Dow Jones industrial average rocketed 268.08 points, or 2.84 per cent, to a record close of 9,736.08. The rally marked the second day in a row the blue chip index posted a gain of more than 2 per cent. For the week, the Dow advanced a whopping 4.62 per cent, boosting its gain for the year to 6.04 per cent. Friday's rally put the Dow within less than 300 points of the coveted 10,000 level.Advances trounced declines 2,075 to 913 as trading volume on the New York Stock Exchange reached 834 million shares. The Nasdaq Composite rallied 44.22 points, or 1.93 per cent, to 2,337.11 in somewhat lighter volume following a temporary failure in the exchange's electronictrading systems. The Nasdaq gained 2.15 points on the week, for a gain on the year of 6.59 per cent.

The S&P 500 index jumped 28.33 points, or 2.31 per cent, to 1,275.47. The S&P 500 rose 3 per cent this week, providing a powerful boost to its 3.76-per cent gain for the year. The S&P 500 closed just 4 points away from its all-time high of 1,279.64, set on January 29.

"Today's rally is almost like a relief rally, said Scott Wittman, chief investment officer at Vantage Investment Advisors, who attributed the strong market climb to investors' celebration of the strong employment data and optimism that interest rates would not head higher.

But over the longer term, Wittman warned, the market will focus on corporate earnings, a vulnerable spot for stocks.

Bonds soared as investors found relief for their interest-rate fears in news that wages grew a modest 0.1 per cent in February, even as the economy churned out 275,000 non-farm jobs in the month. The bellwether 30-year Treasury bond surged 1-13/32 pointsin price, driving the yield down to 5.59 per cent.

"This morning's job report was the first sign that the strong economic growth we saw with fourth-quarter GDP has some holes in it and the economy might not be as strong as the bear suggested -- so strong, that it would lead the Fed to tighten interest rates," said Alan Hoffman, stock market strategist at Value Line Asset Management.

The dollar, however, eased from its Thursday levels against the yen and the euro, hurt by the jobs data, which quashed any hopes currency investors might have had that interest rates would rise.

Bulls on Wall Street found encouragement in the jobs data and started loading up on a broad array of stocks the moment the market opened.Technology, transportation, financial, consumer, drug, oil and utilities stocks all took off as investors saw only good news ahead -- stable interest rates, no inflation and an economy whose growth rate is the envy of the world.

Among the leading sectors, tech stocks pushed higher, once againgaining favour despite recent fears of earnings growth in the sector. Helping prod the bulls, news that chip giant Intel (INTC) has agreed to buy Level One Communications (LEVL), a maker of high-speed chips with built-in communications features, in a $2.2 billion stock swap, sent shares of Level One soaring 17-7/8 to 45, a gain of almost 66 per cent.

Intel's stock climbed 1-1/4 to 114-5/8. Other major technology names also shot up, with Dow member IBM (IBM) rising 7-1/4 to 178-1/4 and its new partner Dell Computer (DELL) jumping 4-3/16 to 86-1/16. Dell's stock splits 2-for-1 at the close of trading Friday.