Stocks gain after strong jobs report

NEW YORK - Stocks opened strong on Wall Street as investors welcomed a report showing the job market was strong last month.

At 1:44 p.m. Eastern time, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 160 points, or 0.9 percent, to 18,512.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index is up 17 point, or 0.8 percent, to 2,182. The Nasdaq composite is up 58 points, or 1.1 percent, at 5,224.

The Labor Department said Friday that employers added 255,000 jobs in July, far more than the 175,000 jobs that economists had expected.

The strong jobs report follows an even larger gain in June. It suggests that Britain's vote to leave the European Union in late June didn't have much effect on hiring plans. The brisk pace of hiring represents a turnaround from weak job growth in the first half of this year, including disappointing job gains in April and May.

The Labor Department said the unemployment rate remained at 4.9 percent and hourly pay continued to rise. It's up 2.6 percent over the last 12 months, matching the fastest pace since the recession.

Online booking service Priceline posted a bigger profit than expected and its stock rose $67.36, or 5 percent, to $1,427.35. That was the biggest gain among consumer companies, but Priceline was far from alone. Home Depot also added $1.37, or 1 percent, to $137.42 and Nike gained 98 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $55.78.

Bond prices fell and the yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note rose to 1.56 percent from 1.50 percent.

Benchmark U.S. crude slid 61 cents, or 1.5 percent, to $41.32 per barrel in New York while Brent crude, used to price international oils, lost 61 cents, or 1.4 percent, to $43.68 a barrel in London.

Gold skidded $22.80, or 1.7 percent, to $1,344.60 an ounce. Silver fell 65 cents, or 3.2 percent, to $19.79 an ounce. Copper dipped 1 cent to $2.16 a pound.

The dollar rose to 101.83 yen from 101.17 yen and the euro fell to $1.1078 from $1.1127.