The unemployment rate held at 9.7 percent in February as employers shed 36,000 jobs, fewer than expected. The figures suggested the job market is slowly healing but that significant hiring has yet to occur.

Shares of Apple Inc. jumped to a record high amid a broader market rally after the technology company said its highly anticipated iPad tablets will go on sale April 3.

Stocks jumped and the Nasdaq hit an 18-month closing high on Friday as U.S. employers cut fewer jobs than expected last month and consumers showed signs of shedding their penny-pinching ways.

Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily Friday on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq Stock Market: NYSE:

Shares of Dynamic Materials Corp. dropped sharply on Friday after the maker of explosion-welded clad metal plates turned in a fourth-quarter profit well below what analysts had been expecting.

Shares of ArcSight Inc., a provider of network security software and services, fell Friday after its fiscal third-quarter profit missed analyst expectations.

SUNDAY, March 7 PARIS — Greek Prime Minister George Papandreou meets with French President Nicolas Sarkozy to discuss Greece’s financial crisis.