US jobless rate lowest in six years; dollar rises

A strong improvement in the US jobs market lifted the dollar to a four-year high against a basket of currencies on Friday while stocks also extended gains, taking heart from more evidence of a sustained recovery in the world's largest economy.

Closely followed non-farm payrolls data for September showed US employers had added 248,000 jobs, up from an upwardly revised 180,000 the previous month and beating forecasts of the 215,000 economists polled by Reuters had predicted beforehand. The jobless rate fell to a six-year low of 5.9 per cent.

Wall Street futures extended gains while the dollar hit a fresh four-year high of 86.498. US short-term interest-rate futures contracts fell and traders boosted bets the Federal Reserve could raise interest rates slightly earlier in 2015.

"Just when investors had been becoming nervous about global growth prospects with October so far seeing a broad sell-off in equity markets, today's non-farm payrolls figure could put a line in the sand for the indices," said Angus Campbell, senior analyst at FXPro.

This week has seen stocks, oil and other commodity markets suffer their biggest slump in months on worries about growth, political unrest and looming US interest rate rises and their impact on the dollar.

Dollar bulls, who have pushed the currency to a four-year high this week, had been counting on the robust jobs report following some healthy signals already this week.

Brent crude futures fell to $92.20 a barrel, trading near their lowest since 2012, with the overall tone quite bearish, amid ample supply.

Gold fell 1.3 per cent to a nine-month low of $1,197.95/oz while copper prices ticked up after hitting five-month lows the session before.

European bourses extended their earlier gains, rising 1 per cent.

The euro fell to a two-year low against the dollar, a day after the European Central Bank disappointed the markets on Thursday and triggered the biggest sell-off in over a year in markets like Italy.