NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. stocks rallied at the open Friday, as investors cheered a better-than-expected jobs report and a bid by business software maker Oracle to buy PeopleSoft.

Intel's mid-quarter update late Thursday also helped boost shares at the start.

At 9:35 a.m. ET, the Nasdaq composite (up 32.46 to 1678.47, Charts) rose more than 1.5 percent, The S&P 500 index (up 12.23 to 1002.37, Charts) and the Dow Jones industrial average (up 109.87 to 9151.17, Charts) posted gains of nearly 1 percent each . All three indexes were well positioned to end the week higher.

The government said the unemployment rate in rose to 6.1 percent in May from 6 percent in April, which was in line with estimates. But employers cut 17,000 jobs from their payrolls in May, a much lower number than the 39,000 job cuts expected by economists, according to Reuters.

Oracle (ORCL: up $0.09 to $13.45, Research, Estimates) shares rose more than 2 percent after the software maker offered to buy PeopleSoft (PSFT: up $3.24 to $18.35, Research, Estimates) for $5.1 billion in an all-cash deal, which would value the company at about $16 a share. The PeopleSoft's shares closed at $15.11 Thursday, and rose more than 22 percent in early trading. Oracle also said its quarterly earnings would meet or beat Wall Street estimates.

Shares of J.D. Edwards (JDEC: up $0.97 to $13.76, Research, Estimates) also gained as PeopleSoft had said it would acquire the company earlier this week. But, Oracle said it would "review" the deal with J.D. Edwards, should it purchase PeopleSoft.

In other corporate news, Intel (INTC: up $0.97 to $22.81, Research, Estimates) tipped nearly 3 percent higher after the top chipmaker narrowed its sales forecast for the current quarter after the closing bell Thursday. But, the midpoint of it's guidance stayed at $6.7 billion. Applied Materials (AMAT: up $0.54 to $17.41, Research, Estimates), KLA-Tencor (KLAC: up $1.46 to $50.82, Research, Estimates) and Advanced Micro Devices (AMD: up $0.28 to $7.30, Research, Estimates) also moved higher on the report.

ImClone (IMCLE: up $5.92 to $44.45, Research, Estimates) shares also rallied more than 16 percent after the biotech company said it would resubmit its controversial Erbitux cancer drug for marketing approval by the Food and Drug Administration after favorable test results announced earlier this week. The firm also said it would take a smaller-than-expected charge in the current quarter.

European markets were higher in afternoon trading. Asian stocks ended higher overnight, with Tokyo's Nikkei up 1.5 percent to its highest level since January.

Treasury prices slid, sending the 10-year note yield up to 3.36 percent from 3.35 percent late Thursday. The dollar edged up against the yen and the euro.

Brent oil futures gained 18 cents to $27.62 a barrel in New York. Gold slipped $3.70 to $365.80 an ounce in New York.