Wall Street rallied Friday morning as investors used a huge stock selloff over the last two sessions as a reason to scoop up battered shares, despite a brutal October jobs report.
Employers cut 240,000 jobs from their payrolls in October, the 10th straight month of cuts. That brought the number of job losses in 2008 so far to 1.2 million. The unemployment rate, generated by a separate survey, surged to 6.5%.
Both figures topped expectations, according to a Briefing.com survey of economists. Wall Street had expected job losses of 200,000 and an unemployment rate of 6.3%.
Since Tuesday, the Dow has lost 929 points, its biggest two-day point decline ever, according to Dow Jones. The percentage decline was 9.7% and its worst two-day drop since Oct. 1987.
Ford Motor reported a $3 billion operating loss in its latest quarter and said it would cut staff and capital spending in order to hang on to capital.
The dollar fell against the euro and gained versus the yen.
COMEX gold for December delivery rose $7.80 to $740 an ounce.
U.S. light crude oil for December delivery rose $1.28 to $62.05 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, after ending the previous session at a 19-month low.
The credit market continued to improve. The 3-month Libor fell to 2.29% from 2.39% Thursday, a nearly four-year low, according to Dow Jones. Overnight Libor held steady at 0.33%, after falling to an all-time low of 0.32% earlier this week. Libor is a key interbank lending rate.
Treasury prices slumped, raising the yield on the benchmark 10-year note to 3.77% from 3.69% late Thursday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.