London’s blue chip stocks ended the day strongly having given up all its gains on the release of weak US data.
The U.S. economy created just 142,000 new jobs in September, much lower than the anticipated 200,000.
And the number of new hires in August and July was also revised lower, suggesting the US economy is not as healthy as once thought.
It throws further doubt on the timing of the Federal Reserve’s long-awaited interest rates.
“The US economy seems fairly resilient but, with employment data particularly disappointing for a second month running, enthusiasm for a rate hike in the short term will surely be tempered,” said Dennis de Jong, managing director of UFX.com.
The news, while damaging at first, gave investors some security as it made it less likely the Fed will raise interest rates this year.
The Dow Jones lost 76 points, to trade at 16,191 in early deals whilst the S&P 500 and Nasdaq both fell around to 1,914 and 4,613 respectively, but this was a recovery from massive early losses.
Back in the UK, things were looking better than they were after the data release, with the FTSE100 ending almost 60 points higher, around 1%, to 6,129.
Glencore led the recovery, after a remarkable week saw the mining giant lose 30% on Monday before storming back to end the week only 5% down.
Today helped, as the miner gained another 4.4% to 95p.
Elsewhere, banks were also on the up as an exit from the seemingly never-ending payment protection insurance black hole is possibly in sight.
Regulator the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has suggested a deadline of 2018 for claims for compensation. Some £20bn has been paid out for PPI mis-selling to more than 10m people so far.
Lloyds (LON:LLOY) jumped 2% to 76p and Royal Bank of Scotland 1.2% to 322p.
Life insurer Legal & General (LON:LGEN) added almost 2.6% to 242p as it picked up a pension contract with electronics group Philips’ US employees.
Philips will transfer US$900mln of pension obligations split equally between Legal & General and Prudential Insurance of America.
Experian (LON:EXPN), fell 4% at 1,031p as the credit checker, confirmed hackers stole some 15mln customers’ data last month.
Investors raised a glass to Universe Group (LON:UNG) which bagged booze seller Conviviality Retail (LON:CVR) as a customer. Shares rose 1.9% to 9.5p.
In small caps, Paragon Diamonds (LON:PRG) sparkled half a per cent to 4.75p as it agreed a US$15mln package to fund the development of its Lemphane and Mothae mines in Lesotho.
Elsewhere, Magnolia Petroleum (LON:MAGP) is balancing its energy product and diversifying revenues with the participation in ten new gas wells in Oklahoma. Shares gushed 4.4% to 0.47p.
Cyber defence specialist Corero Network Security (LON:CNS) rose 6.6% to 14p as it inked a deal for its SmartWall Threat Defence System with an unnamed FTSE100 company.
Meanwhile, SDL (LON:SDL) founder and chief executive will leave SDL at the end of the month having started the firm in 1992. Shares gained 10.6% to 358p.