Strong hiring news sends stocks higher

U.S. stocks are climbing Friday morning after the government said employers stepped up their hiring last month, another positive sign for the U.S. economy. That’s helping small-company stocks, which stand to benefit more than others from faster economic growth. Banks rose sharply after President Trump took a step toward scaling back financial industry regulations.

The Dow Jones industrial average jumped 180 points, or 0.9%, to 20,065 as of 11:15 a.m. Eastern Time. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index advanced 16 points, or 0.7%, to 2,297. The Nasdaq composite rose 25 points, or 0.4%, to 5,660.

The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks climbed 16 points, or 1.2%, to 1,373. Smaller, domestically focused companies may have more to gain than their larger peers from faster growth in the U.S. The Russell made large gains at the end of 2016 based on those hopes.

U.S. JOBS: U.S. employers added 227,000 jobs in January, according to the Labor Department. That’s more than last year’s average monthly gain of 187,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to a low 4.8% from 4.7% in December as more people started looking for work.

Read more: U.S. economy creates robust 227,000 jobs in January; unemployment stays low »

REGULATION ROLLBACK: Financial firms rose after Trump took his first steps aimed at scaling back regulations on the banking industry. He signed an order that directs the Treasury secretary to look for potential changes to the Dodd-Frank law, which reshaped financial regulations after the 2008-09 financial crisis and created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

The order doesn’t have any immediate impact, but it suggests Trump is intent on reducing regulations, which could boost profits for financial companies and banks.

Dow components JPMorgan Chase rose 2.8% to $87, and Goldman Sachs rose 4.2% to $240.19. Morgan Stanley climbed 4.5% to $44.04, and Invesco went up 4% to $30.74. Smaller banks, which could find it easier to lend money if regulations are cut, also traded higher.

As President Trump began his second week in office, he sat in the Roosevelt Room, a glass of Diet Coke at hand, and crowed before small business leaders that the stock market has gone up “massively” since his election.

But that very Monday morning U.S. financial markets were starting to change…

CARD SWIPED: Visa said shoppers stepped up their use of debit and credit cards in the fourth quarter, and the payment processing company also benefited from its acquisition of Visa Europe. Its profit and revenue were stronger than analysts expected. Visa’s stock jumped 5% to $86.40.

AMAZON DOESN’T AMAZE: Online retail giant Amazon fell 3.3% to $812.65 as investors grew concerned about its sales. The company’s fourth-quarter sales fell short of analyst estimates, and the company said it expects $33.25 billion to $33.75 billion in revenue in the current quarter. That’s more than $2 billion short of Wall Street estimates.

MACY’S SALE? Macy’s stock soared after the Wall Street Journal reported that Hudson’s Bay, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, could buy the department store chain. The companies declined to comment. Macy’s jumped 8.8% to $33.41. The stock has been trading around five-year lows. Hudson’s Bay stock rose 4% in Toronto.

Read more: Macy’s shares jump as rumors swirl about a possible takeover »

AMGEN ADVANCES: Biotech drugmaker Amgen disclosed a bigger profit and better sales than analysts had expected. It also reported results from a study that showed its cholesterol drug Repatha reduced risk of death, heart attack and stroke in patients with advanced atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease. That could help boost prescriptions for Repatha, which was approved in August. Amgen rose 4.2% to $166.29.

SAFETY CHECK: Network security company Fortinet reported a bigger profit and greater revenue than analysts expected, and its stock leaped 13.4% to $37.62. Competitor FireEye slumped 15.8% to $10.92. That company disclosed a smaller profit and less revenue than expected, and it forecast weaker-than-expected sales for the current quarter.

UGG-LY TURN: Deckers Outdoor, the maker of Ugg footwear, announced weak quarterly profit and sales. The company said it expects to earn around $3.50 a share in the current fiscal year, far short of the analyst estimate of $4.08 a share. The stock tumbled 17.1% to $46.05.

NO-GO FOR GOPRO: Action camera maker GoPro slumped after another weak sales report. The company’s fourth-quarter total of $541 million in revenue fell about $35 million below analyst estimates. Its first-quarter projection was even worse: It called for around $200 million in sales in the first quarter, $68 million below estimates. The stock sank 12.6% to $9.59.

BONDS: Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 2.44% from 2.48%.

ENERGY: Benchmark U.S. crude rose 42 cents to $53.96 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, rose 48 cents to $57.04 a barrel in London.

CURRENCY: The dollar slipped to 112.40 yen from 112.70 yen. The euro edged up to $1.0789 from $1.0764.

OVERSEAS: France’s CAC 40 jumped 0.8%. The British FTSE 100 rose 0.7%, while Germany’s DAX advanced 0.2%. The Nikkei 225 in Tokyo finished almost unchanged, and Seoul’s Kospi rose 0.1%. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong shed 0.2%.

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A speech by conservative firebrand and Milo Yiannopoulos was canceled at UC Berkeley on Wednesday amid violent protests that prompted President Trump to suggest cutting funding to the university.

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Neil M. Gorsuch, a highly regarded conservative jurist best known for upholding religious liberty rights in the legal battles over Obamacare, is President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee.

UPDATES:

9:05 a.m.: This article was updated with market prices and context.

This article was originally published at 6:55 a.m.

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