Stocks struggle after jobs report
Wall Street tries to extend the recent rally after the March jobs report shows unemployment at 8.5%.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks struggled higher Friday morning as investors eyed a wretched March jobs report at the end of another up week on Wall Street.
The Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added a few points in the early going. The S&P 500 (SPX) index also added a few points. The Nasdaq composite (COMP) added 3 points, or 0.2%.
Stocks rallied Thursday, extending the market's recent run that has seen the S&P 500 index jump 23% since hitting 12-year lows on March 9.
Traders are looking for a reason to rally and want to believe the bottom is near, but it's hard to "put a positive spin" on continued job losses, said Hamed Khorsand, analyst for BWF Financial, explaining the brief surge.
Jobs: The start of Friday trading will be heavily influenced by the Labor Department's March jobs report.
The department reported that the U.S. economy lost 663,000 non-farm jobs in March, which was slightly worse than expected. Also, the department said the unemployment rate rose to 8.5% from 8.1%, matching the expectations.
Economists had forecast a loss of 658,000 jobs from the payrolls last month and an unemployment rate of 8.5%, according to a consensus from Briefing.com.
The government said the U.S. economy has lost 5.1 million jobs since the start of the recession in December, 2007. Two-thirds of the decline - some 3.3 million lost jobs - occurred in the last five months.
Economy: Also on tap is a reading on the services sector in March. The Institute for Supply Management services report comes at 10 a.m. ET.
Stocks around the world have risen sharply this week amid growing optimism that the worst of the economic downturn is over. The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq all advanced about 3% Thursday.
If the Dow Jones does rally and crosses the 8,000 mark, the market will face its "next big test" in trying to breach the 8,500 level that markets achieved in January, according to David Jones, chief market strategist at IG Markets.
Bernanke: At 12:30 p.m. ET, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke is scheduled to speak about the Fed's balance sheet in Charlotte, N.C., at the annual Credit Market Symposium of the Federal Reserve Bank of Richmond.
G-20: The meeting of the leaders of the world's largest economies ended on a high note with President Obama pleased with a package worth more than $1 trillion to tackle the global economic crisis. (G-20 winners and losers)
World markets: The global stock rally lost some of its momentum. Asian stocks posted modest gains while major European markets were mixed.
Oil and money: Oil prices fell 81 cents a barrel to $51.83. The dollar rose versus the euro and the yen, but slipped against the British pound. 
