LIVE MARKETS-Liftoff

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LIFTOFF

U.S. stocks are rallying in the early stages of trading, with the S&P 500 index .SPX on pace for its biggest daily percentage gain in nearly six months, powered by gains in Nvidia NVDA.O after the AI heavyweight's quarterly earnings and a delayed jobs report that was stronger than anticipated.

Nvidia is climbing about 4% and accounting for roughly 21 points to the upside for the benchmark S&P index after the chipmaker reported earnings and gave a strong outlook that temporarily alleviated recent concerns about stretched valuations and circular funding deals in AI-related stocks.

The gains are being boosted by the tech index .SPLRCT, which is up more than 2%, and each of the S&P 500 sectors is on the plus side. Growth .IGX is also up more than 2%, outpacing the 0.9% gain in value .IVX.

On the data front, nonfarm payrolls increased by 119,000 jobs after a downwardly revised 4,000 drop in August, the Labor Department said, while the unemployment rate rose to 4.4% and the economy shed jobs in the prior month.

In addition, initial claims for state unemployment benefits dropped 8,000 to a seasonally adjusted 220,000 for the week ended November 15 versus expectations of economists polled by Reuters for 230,000 claims. The claims data covered the period during which the government would have surveyed business establishments for November nonfarm payrolls.

Markets will continue to grapple with noisy data due to the extended government shutdown that ended last week.

"Dated data is better than no data, but it's not all that illuminating about where we are now or where we're headed," said Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management in Menomonee Falls, Wisconsin. "It confirms that the trend for the cyclical parts of the economy were struggling while the steady-eddy parts of the economy, like health care, were still doing fine."

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said on Wednesday the data collection period for the establishment and household surveys would be extended, and extra processing time added. BLS canceled October's employment report because the longest shutdown in history prevented data collection for the household survey, from which the unemployment rate is calculated.

Below is your early market snapshot:

(Chuck Mikolajczak)

EARLIER ON LIVE MARKETS:

US STOCK FUTURES ADD TO GAINS AFTER LATEST JOBS DATA CLICK HERE

SEPTEMBER'S PAYROLLS: A BIG ONE OR TOO STALE TO CARE? CLICK HERE

BITCOIN GETS POLITICAL CLICK HERE

EUROPE SPARKS TO LIFE AFTER NVIDIA RESULTS CLICK HERE

EUROPE BEFORE THE BELL: STOCKS SET TO JUMP AFTER REASSURING NVIDIA RESULTS CLICK HERE

U.S. JOBS TEST LOOMS AFTER NVIDIA RELIEF CLICK HERE