Stocks Opened Sharply Higher After Job Growth Surged

Stocks started higher on Friday after the economy created jobs at the fastest pace in nine months in January and the unemployment rate dropped to a near three-year low of 8.3 percent.  The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately advanced 117.01 points to 12,822.42. The S&P 500 Index rose 12.52 points to 1,338.06. The Nasdaq Composite added 28.32 points to 2,888.00.

The U.S. gained 243,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate dipped to 8.3% as most sectors of the economy added workers, the Labor Department said Friday. The increase in hiring was the biggest since last April and supplies further evidence that the economy continues to strengthen after a slowdown last summer. The U.S. has added an average of 183,000 jobs a month in the past five months.

Former UBS AG trader Kweku Adoboli, who is accused of unauthorized deals that cost the Swiss bank $2.3 billion, was refused bail by a London court on Friday less than an hour after regulators stepped up their probe into the scandal.

Greek Prime Minister Lucas Papademos and Italy’s Mario Monti were appointed within days of each other last November to replace politicians who took their countries to the brink of financial collapse.

It is one of the biggest conundrums of an aging society: Americans have salted away $11 trillion in retirement plans, yet millions still risk running out of money in old age. On Thursday the government said it had some new tools to deal with the problem. The Treasury issued several new regulations intended to make it easier, and maybe cheaper, for middle-class people in retirement to transfer the money they accumulated in their 401(k)s into an annuity that would guarantee monthly payments until they die.