TECH STOCKS: A Big FinishTECH STOCKS: A Big Finish

A government report that showed job growth for the first time since January sent a jolt through tech stocks Friday and helped all major indexes finish with sizeable gains for the week.

The Labor Department said nonfarm payroll jobs grew by 57,000 last month. Although unemployment remained at 6.1%, economists were forecasting another decline in jobs in September, and investors gobbled up stocks in hopes that the data showed that corporate profits may pick up.

The information 100 rose 9.48 points Friday to close at 288.26, a gain of 3.4% for the day and 6.4% for the week. The Nasdaq rose 44.35 points to 1,880.57, a 2.4% increase, and up 4.9% for the week. Trading was hectic, with 2.01 billion shares exchanging hands. The Nasdaq-100 tracking stock closed up 93 cents to $34.19, a 2.8% gain for the day and 5% for the week, with 1.12 million shares changing hands.

The blue chips had a decent day and a great week. The Dow Jones rose 84.51 points to 9,572.31, a gain of 0.9% for the day and 2.8% for the week. The S&P 500 rose 9.61 points to 1,029.85, up 0.9% for the day and 3.3% for the week.