US stocks surged over 2.5 percent on Friday, boosted by a robust US jobs report, plans for fresh Sino-US trade talks and as Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell pledged patience and sensitivity to risks in the markets.
The rally puts Wall Street on course to erase all losses from a day earlier, when stocks plunged after slowing US factory activity on the heels of Apple Inc's dire revenue warning fueled fears of a global economic slowdown.
Nonfarm payrolls surged by 312,000 jobs in December, the largest gain since February and sailed past economists' expectations of 177,000 jobs. Wages also rose, while the unemployment rate improved, the Labor Department said.
While the report allayed fears over slowing economic growth, there were some concerns that the healthy data would let the Fed stick with its projection for two interest rate hikes this year.
But Powell moved to mollify financial markets, saying that while economic momentum is solid, the Fed is sensitive to the risks highlighted by investors and will be patient with its monetary policy in 2019.
"His (Powell's) comments are being interpreted as dovish," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.
"The things he said today are leading traders and investors to believe that the Fed is willing to potentially change their projections for rate hikes this year."
All the 11 major S&P sectors were higher. Technology stocks , coming off their biggest one-day percentage drop since August 2011 on Thursday, jumped 3.8 percent, leading the gains.
The trade-sensitive industrials sector rose 2.7 percent after Beijing announced a new round of trade talks with Washington on Jan. 7-8 to try and resolve their dispute.
At 11:35 a.m., ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 593.82 points, or 2.62 percent, at 23,280.04, the S&P 500 was up 66.37 points, or 2.71 percent, at 2,514.26 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 229.58 points, or 3.55 percent, at 6,693.08.
The heavyweight FAANG stocks - Facebook Inc, Apple, Amazon.com Inc, Netflix Inc and Google-parent Alphabet Inc - surged between 3.6 percent and 7.8 percent, bolstering gains on the S&P and Nasdaq.
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