U.S. stocks open higher after strong jobs report

U.S. stocks opened higher Friday as Wall Street cheered over the country's better-than-expected jobs report.

U.S. total nonfarm payroll employment increased by 227,000 in January, well above market consensus of 175,000, the Labor Department reported Friday. The unemployment rate was little changed at 4.8 percent.

In January, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 3 cents to 26.00 U.S. dollars, following a 6-cent increase in December. Over the year, average hourly earnings have risen by 2.5 percent.

In corporate news, shares of Amazon dropped over 3 percent in the early trading Friday, after the company delivered quarterly earnings above estimates but revenues shy of forecasts.

After Thursday's closing bell, the e-commerce giant reported net income of 749 million dollars for the fourth quarter of 2016, or 1.54 dollars per diluted share, on sales of 43.7 billion dollars.

Shares of Visa surged over 4 percent in the early trading Friday following the release of the credit-card company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

Shortly after the opening bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 92.76 points, or 0.47 percent, to 19,977.67. The S&P 500 added 8.85 points, or 0.39 percent, to 2,289.70. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 15.31 points, or 0.27 percent, to 5,651.51.

On Thursday, U.S. stocks closed mixed after wavering between gains and losses, as investors meditated on a batch of corporate earnings reports. Endi