US stocks jump on solid April jobs report

Wall Street stocks jumped in early trade Friday after the Labor Department reported the US added 223,000 jobs in April and the unemployment rate fell to a seven-year low.

About 30 minutes into trade, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 18,164.45, up 240.39 points (1.34 percent).

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 24.05 (1.15 percent) to 2,112.05, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 54.83 (1.11 percent) to 5,000.37.

The monthly jobs report was roughly in line with expectations after March's sharp fall in job creation. The jobless rate dipped 0.1 percentage point to 5.4 percent.

Analysts said the report, while solid, was likely not strong enough to hasten higher interest rates from the US Federal Reserve.

The report "isn't the type of news that the data-dependent Fed can take to the rate-hike bank," said Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare.

European stocks were sharply higher, with London's FTSE 100 up more than 2.2 percent following the surprisingly big Conservative election victory.

US equity gains were broad-based, with all 30 members of the Dow in the green. Leaders of the blue-chip index included Boeing and Home Depot (both +3.0 percent).  

Dow member McDonald's rose 2.1 percent on news that April global comparable sales fell 0.6 percent, less than the 1.9 percent drop projected by analysts. The fast-food chain unveiled a turnaround plan earlier this week following a succession of weak results.

Swiss farm chemicals powerhouse Syngenta bolted 12.4 percent higher following its rejection of a $45 billion takeover proposal by US seed giant Monsanto, saying the bid undervalues the company. Monsanto gained 3.3 percent.

The cloud computing company Salesforce fell 2.6 percent following a media report that dampened speculation Microsoft will bid to buy the company. Dow member Microsoft rose 2.3 percent.

Bond prices rosen sharply on the jobs data. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.11 percent from 2.18 percent Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.86 percent from 2.91 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.