NEW YORK – The Standard & Poor’s 500 closed at its highest level in five years Friday after a report showed that hiring held up in December, giving stocks an early lift.

The S&P 500 finished up 7.10 points at 1,466.47, its highest close since December 2007.

The index began its descent from a record close of 1,565.15 in October 2007, as the early signs of the financial crisis began to emerge. The index bottomed out in March 2009 at 676.53 before staging a recovery that has seen it more than double in value and move to within 99 points of its all-time peak.

The remarkable recovery has come despite a halting recovery in the U.S. economy as the Federal Reserve provided huge support to the financial system, buying hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of bonds and holding benchmark interest rates near zero. Last month the Fed said it would keep rates low until the unemployment rate improved significantly.

“Without the Federal Reserve doing what they did for the last few years, there would be no way you’d be near any of these levels in the index,” said Joe Saluzzi, co-head of equity trading at Themis Trading. “I would call this the Fed-levitating market.”

The Dow Jones industrial average finished 43.85 points higher at 13,435.21. It gained 3.8 percent for the week, its biggest weekly advance since June.

Among stocks making big moves, Eli Lilly and Co. jumped $1.84, or 3.7 percent, to $51.56 after saying that its earnings will grow more than Wall Street expects, even though the drugmaker will lose U.S. patent protection for two more product types this year.

Stocks may also be benefiting as investors adjust their portfolios to favor stocks over bonds, said TD Ameritrade’s Kinahan. A multiyear rally in bonds has pushed up prices for the securities and reduced the yield that they offer, in many cases to levels below company dividends.

The 10-year Treasury note fell, pushing its yield higher. The yield on the 10-year note fell 2 basis points to 1.91 percent. The note’s yield has now climbed 52 basis points since falling to its lowest in 20 years in July.