U.S. stocks rally amid jobs report, ECB move

U.S. stocks surged more than 1 percent in the morning session on Friday, as investors focused on a solid jobs report released Friday and digested the European Central Bank's (ECB) decision.

By noon, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 256.12 points, or 1.47 percent, to 17,733.79. The S&P 500 rose 26.76 points, or 1.31 percent, to 2,076.38. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 70.99 points, or 1.41 percent, to 5,108.51.

Total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 211,000 in November, beating market estimates of 200,000, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 5.0 percent, reported the U.S. Labor Department Friday.

Analysts said the solid job growth would most likely pave the way for the U.S. Federal Reserve to raise interest rates this month for the first time in nearly a decade.

"December is decided, the new debate is what happens after that," said Chris Low, chief economist at FTN Financial, in a note.

In other economic news, the goods and services deficit was 43.9 billion U.S. dollars in October, up 1.4 billion dollars from the revised level of 42.5 billion dollars in September, according to the U.S. Commerce Department Friday.

The ECB on Thursday decided to lower the interest rate of deposit facility by 10 basis points to minus 0.3 percent, with effect from Dec. 9, 2015.

The interest rate on the main refinancing operations and on the marginal lending facility will remain unchanged at 0.05 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.

"The monthly purchases of 60 billion euros (65 billion dollars) under the APP are now intended to run until the end of March 2017," said Mario Draghi, president of the ECB at a press conference following the governing council meeting.

The stimulus measures, however, appeared less aggressive than markets had expected. Analysts had anticipated a deeper cut to interest rates and had expected an increase in its asset purchase program. Enditem