US open: Stocks jump on strong May jobs data

Wall Street trading started strong on Friday after the latest US monthly employment report helped to offset trade fears from a day earlier.

As of 1505 BST, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.92% to 24,641.33, while the S&P 500 was 0.89% higher at 2,729.33 and the Nasdaq had collected 0.91% to 7,509.97.

On Thursday, the main US stockmarket gauges had suffered considerable losses following the White House's announcement that it had chosen to go ahead with tariffs on steel and aluminium imports from the EU, Canada and Mexico, rekindling fears of a global trade war as a result.

In other news, North Korean delegates have been mobilised and are en route to Washington today to deliver a letter to Donald Trump from the Hermit Kingdom's leader Kim Jong Un.

Elsewhere, Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy was ousted from office and Italy may very well get a coalition government run by two populist parties after all.

So for the moment at least, investors appeared to be breathing a sigh of relief at the prospect that Spain and Italy might be spared 'snap' elections.

On the data front, most economists dubbed the latest non-farm payrolls report as "solid", highlighting the broad-based gains in employment by sectors.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, non-farm payrolls jumped by 223,000 last month (consensus: 190,000).

Wage growth was as expected, rising by 2.7% year-on-year, although Pantheon Macroeconomics's Ian Shepherdson said that statistical quirks had weighed on that figure.

Neil Wilson of Markets.com, said, "Trump gave today's numbers a big billing but nonetheless the nonfarm payrolls print was a little stronger than expected, but not so powerful as to significantly shift expectations on where the Fed is going in the medium term. It just means the June rate hike is a nailed on certainty."

Wilson added the reading may "help make Fed language on the labour market more hawkish", as policymakers can now "really start" to talk about being 'beyond' full employment.

Meanwhile, the Institute for Supply Management revealed that its manufacturing index had risen to a reading of 58.7%, up 1.4% from April to a two-month high.

The new-orders index picked up, rising 2.5 to 63.7%, and the production index gained 4.3 to 61.5%. The employment index also improved 2.1 points to 56.3%.

In corporate news, Abercrombie&Fitch was down 8.95% despite reporting narrower losses for its first-quarter while Sears was down by 4.94% after it announced that it would close 72 stores in the near future.

Twitter gained 2.91% after having its price target hiked amid World Cup opportunities and Facebook rose 0.45% after analysts indicated that GDPR was more likely to help the firm than hurt it.