Investing.com - Wall Street was higher on Friday as the U.S. economy created more jobs than expected in March.
The Dow gained 29 points, or 0.1%, by 9:40 AM ET (13:40 GMT) while the S&P 500 was up 5 points, or 0.2%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite jumped 18 points, or 0.2%.
A stronger-than-expected gain in nonfarm payrolls helped lift sentiment as the economy appears to have shaken off the winter blues.
Still, average hourly earnings grew at a slower rate than anticipated, which supports the Federal Reserve’s extension of its pause on interest rate hikes.
"A mixed but overall very solid jobs report. The healthy bounce back in hiring last month should help to quell recession fears," said Joe Manimbo, senior market analyst at Western Union Business Solutions.
"Still, weaker wage growth suggests the Fed's December rate hike may have been its last in the current cycle."
Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) was among the top gainers, rising 0.8% after a Wall Street Journal report said that its ad revenue was increasing, while Advanced Micro Devices (NASDAQ:AMD) surged 1.2% and Mattel (NASDAQ:MAT) was up 1.1%.
Elsewhere, Cognex Corporation (NASDAQ:CGNX) slumped 4% while Intel (NASDAQ:INTC) fell 1% and Netflix (NASDAQ:NFLX) inched down 0.2%.
In commodities, gold futures were flat at $1,294.35 a troy ounce while crude oil rose 0.5% to $62.44 a barrel. The U.S. dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of six major currencies, gained 0.04% to 96.963.
-- Reuters contributed to this report.