United States stocks open higher; Twitter, GE among early gainers

Data released Friday showed U.S. non-farm payrolls rose by 142,000 in September, considerably lower than the 203,000 jobs the markets had expected.

Equities rose to end last week despite a weaker-than-expected jobs report that triggered fears the USA economy was on shaky ground.

Aama said the uncertainty over rates was likely to continue as investors look for more consistency in economic reports.

However, Eric Rosengren, head of the Boston Fed, told Reuters on Monday that he still expected the Fed to raise rates this year despite the “weak” jobs report.

The jobs report has most analysts predicting that the Fed will leave rates at record lows later this month, although a rate hike in December remains a possibility.

The Dow and S&P 500 both gained more than 1 percent Friday after initially shedding more than 1.5 percent.

Taking a lead from Friday’s Wall Street gains, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan rose to a 2-week high and was last up 1.6 per cent. Tokyo’s Nikkei climbed 1.2 per cent, Australian shares rallied 1.7 per cent, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1.8 per cent and South Korea’s Kospi rose 1.2 pe rcent.

Benchmark U.S. crude gained 57 cents to $46.11 per barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Exxon was up 0.3 percent, while Chevron gained almost 2 percent. Energy stocks rose along with the price of oil.

September was the second month in a row in which the number of monthly jobs created fell shy of Wall Street expectations.

With the third-quarter earnings season starting this week, investors are also starting to factor in what is likely to be the biggest fall in profits for S&P 500 companies in six years.

GE FIGHT: General Electric rose $1.01, or 4 percent, to $26.47 after activist investor Nelson Peltz disclosed he had accumulated a $2.5 billion stake in GE. The stock gave the biggest boost to the S&P 500.

BACK AT THE HELM: Twitter rose 55 cents, or 2 percent, to $26.86 after the company said it was moving its co-founder Jack Dorsey into the CEO position full time.

Spark Therapeutics soared 68 percent to $73.98 after the company said its experimental eye drug was successful in a late-stage study.

The only sector in the red was the S&P health index, down 0.4 percent. Each share of the old Google is worth one share of Alphabet. USA crude futures (CLc1) were down 0.5 percent at $45.31 after surging 1.8 percent on Friday when a report of a continuing US oil rig count helped offset the weak employment data.

Economists expect the ISM’s service sector index to dip to 58.0 in September from 59.0 in August, but a reading above 50 would indicate continued growth. On the Nasdaq, 2,068 issues rose and 679 fell.