U.S. jobs data boosts stocks, hits bonds

World stocks erased losses and Wall Street looked set for strong gains on Friday after a surprisingly robust U.S. jobs report pointed to recovering economic growth.

The dollar firmed and bonds sold off with 30-year U.S. Treasuries losing a full point. Gold was down $14 an ounce on the day at $1,194 an ounce.

U.S. employers cut a far fewer-than-expected 11,000 jobs in November, the smallest decline since the start of the recession in December 2007.

The Labor Department also revised figures for September and October to show 159,000 fewer jobs lost than previously reported.

Analysts polled by Reuters had expected non-farm payrolls to drop 130,000 last month and the unemployment rate to hold steady at 10.2 percent. It fell to 10 percent.

"These numbers are almost too good to be true…. There's a 193,000 net improvement in jobs for the month. Average weekly hours worked also up which is good for consumption spending. These are eye-popping numbers," said Tom Sowanick, chief investment officer of The Omnivest Group.

World stocks as measured by MSCI erased earlier gain, driven by a large jump in European stocks.

The FTSEurofirst 300 index of top European shares was up more than 1 percent.

Earlier, Japan's Nikkei stock average edged up 0.4 percent on the day.

But it closed above 10,000 for the first time in five weeks and rose 10.4 percent on the week, its biggest weekly gain in over a year.

DOLLAR FIRMS

The dollar extended gains against the yen and edged up against the euro after the data, which was seen as suggesting U.S. interest rates may be able to rise sooner than expected.

The dollar rose 1.2 percent to 89.23 yen after the report and was on track for its biggest one day move against the yen in nearly two months.

The euro fell to $1.5033 from around $1.5055 and was down about 0.2 percent on the day.

Euro zone government bond futures turned negative and hit a session low.