US economy added better-than-expected 227,000 jobs in January

WASHINGTON (REUTERS, AFP) - The US economy continued to pump out new jobs in January, adding 227,000 positions, while the unemployment rate rose a tenth to 4.8 per cent, the Labor Department reported Friday (Feb 3).

With jobs added at their fastest pace since September, the first employment report released in President Donald Trump's administration largely confirmed the health of the economy, which has had a slow but steady recovery from the 2008 financial crisis.

Hiring in the private and public sectors in the United States in January rose to 227,000 as construction firms and retailers ramped up hiring, compared with 175,000 that economists had expected according to a Reuters poll.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.8 per cent, while average hourly earnings increased three cents, or 0.1 per cent, last month.

Bank stocks were up in premarket trading as Trump prepared to scale back the Dodd-Frank Wall Street reform law.

Wall Street looked set to rise at the open, while bank shares added to the potential upside.

Shares of big US banks rose also ahead of a meeting of top management with Trump. Citigroup, Bank of America, Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan were up more than 1.5 per cent.

Dow e-minis were up 82 points, or 0.41 percent at 8:32 am ET (9:32pm Singapore time), with 24,816 contracts changing hands.

S&P 500 e-minis were up 7.75 points, or 0.34 per cent, with 141,792 contracts traded.

Nasdaq 100 e-minis were up 10.75 points, or 0.21 per cent, on volume of 24,677 contracts.

Wall Street ended little changed on Thursday as Trump's policy plans remained sketchy, nearly two weeks after he took office.

Still, the indexes are not far away from their record levels, and the nonfarm payrolls report and further clarity on bank regulatory reforms could act as catalysts for the market after weeks of range-bound trading.

Other data vying for attention include the ISM non-manufacturing index report, which is likely to indicate continued strength in U.S. services sector activity. The data is due at 10:00 a.m. ET.

Chicago Federal Reserve President Charles Evans is scheduled to speak at 9:15am ET. Evans, a voting member of the Fed's policy-setting meeting, could provide insight on when the central bank expects to raise interest rates, after it stood pat on Wednesday.

Among stocks, Dow component Visa rose 4.2 per cent to US$85.75 following quarterly profit and revenue that beat analysts' expectations.

Amazon.com fell 4.34 percent to US$803.50 after the world's largest online retailer forecast a surprise dip in operating profit for the current quarter.

Apparel and footwear maker Deckers Outdoor dropped 21 per cent to US$43.87 after missing quarterly revenue estimates.

Cybersecurity firm FireEye reported its first-ever drop in quarterly revenue on Thursday, sending its shares down nearly 19 per cent.