U.S. stocks ended higher Friday as jobs growth surges in February and oil prices fell below 60 dollars.

On the economic front, the Labor Department report showed Friday that employers added more jobs to U.S. payrolls in February than economists expected. A net gain of 243,000 jobs to U.S. payrolls in the month, compared with a revised 170,000 gain reported in January.

The unemployment rate rose to 4.8 percent in the month, compared with the 4.7 percent rate in January. Economists had forecast the unemployment rate would remain unchanged.

The economy will probably grow at an annual rate of 4.7 percent this quarter after expanding just 1.6 percent in the last three months of 2005, according to the median estimate of economists surveyed by Bloomberg News this month.

Crude for April delivery settled down 51 cents, or 0.8 percent, at 59.96 dollars per barrel in New York on Friday, its lowest settlement price since Feb. 17, as traders took profits ahead of the weekend.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 104.06, or 0.95 percent, to 11,076.34. The Standard & Poor's 500 index added 9.35, or 0.73 percent, to 1,281.58, and the Nasdaq composite index gained 12.32, or 0.55 percent, to 2,262.04.

For the week, the Dow rose 0.5 percent, while the S&P fell 0.44 percent and the Nasdaq tumbled 1.75 percent.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by more than 11 to 5 on the New York Stock Exchange, where the volume came to 1.6 billion shares, compared with 1.56 billion traded on Thursday.

Source: Xinhua