Wall Street ends up on bull market's birthday; inflation fears ease

NEW YORK (Reuters) - To celebrate the bull market's ninth birthday on Friday, the three major U.S. stock indexes ended up more than 1 percent, with the Nasdaq hitting a record high, as February's jobs report assuaged fears of inflation and aggressive interest rate hikes.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 440.46 points, or 1.77 percent, to 25,335.67, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 47.53 points, or 1.74 percent, to 2,786.5 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 132.86 points, or 1.79 percent, to 7,560.81.

(Reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama)