Wall Street readies for a strong rally
Futures surge on much better-than-expected unemployment report that showed the unemployment rate dropping to 10% and monthly job losses little changed.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Investors are bracing for a strong open when U.S. stocks open for trading Friday following the government's much better-than-expected monthly jobs report.
Dow Jones industrial average, Nasdaq-100 and S&P-500 futures were sharply higher. Futures had been modestly higher before the report but really took off immediately after the jobs report.
Futures measure current index values against their perceived future performance and offer an indication of how markets may open when trading begins.
Prior the report, Art Hogan, chief market strategist at Jefferies & Co., said that a job loss of 105,000 or less will be "something to celebrate" and would likely result in a rally.
"We're looking for a decrease in the magnitude of jobs being lost," said Hogan. "Every month we say this is the most important piece of data. This time we mean it."
He added that there's a good chance that stocks could flatten by the end of the day, as money managers look for an excuse to close their books -- not just for the week, but for the year.
Stocks struggled in a choppy session Thursday, gaining early in the session on Bank of America's (BAC, Fortune 500) plan to pay back $45 billion of its bailout money. But the rally lost steam and stocks ended lower as investors prepared for the November jobs report.
Jobs. The Labor Department released the November unemployment report before the start of trading. The government said that the economy shed a mere 11,000 jobs, and that the unemployment declined to 10% from 10.2% in the prior month.
This was dramatically different from expectations. A consensus survey of economists by Briefing.com had expected employers to cut 125,000 jobs from their payrolls in the month, after cutting a revised 111,000 in October.
Economists expected the jobless rate to hold steady at 10.2%.
The October factory orders report is due at 10 a.m. ET. Orders are expected to have remained flat in the month, after rising 0.9% in September.
Gold. Gold futures for February delivery slipped $14.90 to $1,203.50 a troy ounce, after Thursday's all-time high settlement of $1,218.30.
World Markets. In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei index rose for the fifth straight day, up 0.5%, but a 0.3% dip snapped the 4-day advance of Hong Kong's Hang Seng index. Major European indexes fell in midday trading.
Currency and oil. The dollar was mixed against major international currencies, rising against the euro and the yen but slipping versus the British pound. The price of crude oil for January delivery was little changed, rising 11 cents to $76.57 a barrel in electronic trading. 
