US open: Stocks in the green as investors weigh non-farm payrolls

US stocks were in the green on Friday following a mixed jobs report, while bank stocks surged after reports of financial deregulation and as the dollar sank.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.72% to 20,028.43, the S&P 500 was up 0.6% to 2,294.54 and the Nasdaq was 0.33% firmer to 5,654.82 at 1544 GMT.

The non-farm payrolls report showed that 227,000 new jobs were created in January, from 157,000 the previous month and above the consensus forecast of 180,000.

However, the unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up 0.1 percentage points to 4.8%, rising due to an increase in labour force participation rate. The average hourly earnings disappointed in January, growing by just 0.1% month-on-month, placing the year-on-year gain lower at 2.5%.

US Treasury yields fell in the wake of the non-farm payrolls report with the yield on the 10-year note falling 1.4 basis points to 2.44% after rising 0.6 basis points before the report was published. While the two-year note was down 1.2 basis points to 1.19%.

Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets, said: “The dollar took a bit of a nose dive in the wake of this afternoon’s employment report. While the headline numbers at 227,000 and the revisions were very positive, the wage growth numbers were abysmal, as the year on year number slumped from 2.9% to 2.5%.

“This lack of wage growth despite rising inflationary pressures would be unlikely to prompt any action on rates by the Federal Reserve, before June this year. That being said with rising inflationary pressures in the ISM numbers this week, there could be some on the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) who think that rising prices require some form of rate response irrespective of what wages do."

Roiana Reid, associate economist at Berenberg, said: “This was a solid employment report and if the economic data remains robust, one would encourage the Fed to hike rates in March as it would give the committee more flexibility to achieve its goals of three rate hikes this year and reduce the chances that it will fall behind the curve.”

The dollar was up 0.14% against the pound to 0.7993, but was down 0.28% versus the euro to 0.9269 and 0.39% weaker against the yen to 112.36.

Banking stocks JP Morgan Chase & Co and Goldman Sachs rallied following a report that Donald Trump’s administration plans to sign an executive action to scale back the 2010 Dodd-Frank bank reform rules.

Across the pond, the Stoxx Europe 600 banks index gained 1.35%.

Meanwhile, West Texas Intermediate and Brent crude were both up 0.98% to $54.07 and $57.12 per barrel, respectively.

In other corporate news, Clorox was up 4.5% after beating second quarter revenue expectations.

GoPro slumped 12.72% after its fourth-quarter revenue late on Thursday missed expectations, while Chipotle Mexican Grill nudged 4.52% lower after weaker-than-expected quarterly earnings.

Amazon fell 3.41% after it reported disappointing fourth-quarter revenue late on Thursday.