(MENAFN- AFP) Wall Street stocks rose early Friday, ending a sharp two-day skid, after the government reported that the US economy added 292,000 jobs in December, much more than expected.
About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 85.91 points (0.52 percent) at 16,600.01.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 11.11 (0.58 percent) to 1,954.31, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 45.88 (0.98 percent) at 4,735.31.
The Labor Department's December jobs growth number was much above the 200,000 analyst estimate. The report also upgraded job growth in October and November. The unemployment rate held steady at 5.0 percent.
In China, the benchmark Shanghai Composite Index gained 1.97 percent, helping to stabilize markets in Europe and elsewhere in Asia. On Thursday, Chinese stocks plunged seven percent, triggering a circuit-breaker mechanism that halted trading and unleashed a global sell-off.
Technology stocks staged a rebound a day after bruising losses. Apple rose 2.2 percent, Amazon 1.8 percent, Facebook 2.2 percent and Microsoft 1.0 percent.
Apparel chain The Gap slumped 10.4 percent after reporting December sales fell four percent to $2 billion following negative comparable sales in all three major divisions: Gap, Banana Republic and Old Navy.
A pair of Apple iPhone suppliers warned of lower revenues, lending credence to reports earlier in the week of cutbacks to the much-monitored product of the world's biggest publicly traded company.
Qorvo, a supplier of radio frequency technology for telecommunications goods, fell 4.6 percent after announcing that it expects third-quarter sales of $620 million, below its prior projection of $720-$730 million, due to lower demand.
Another leading Apple iPhone supplier, Cirrus Logic, a semiconductor company, rose 6.6 percent after projecting third-quarter revenues of $347 million compared with analyst expectations of $380.5 million. However, Cirrus signaled strong revenue growth over the medium term due to other product introductions.
"We are aligned with the very best customers and have a comprehensive and robust product portfolio that spans the complete audio signal chain. With numerous growth vectors, we believe the company is poised for continued success in the coming years," said Cirrus chief executive Jason Rhode.
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