U.S. stocks rally after strong jobs report

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

By midday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 163.00 points, or 0.82 percent, to 20,047.91. The S&P 500 added 14.46 points, or 0.63 percent, to 2,295.31. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 18.12 points, or 0.32 percent, to 5,654.32.

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.

Meanwhile, the Non-Manufacturing Index, which measures activity in the U.S. service sector, registered 56.5 percent in January, missing market expectations of 57.0, the Institute for Supply Management (ISM) said in its monthly survey Friday.

In corporate news, shares of Amazon dropped over 3 percent around midday 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 nearly 5 percent around midday Friday following the release of the credit-card company's better-than-expected quarterly results.

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