Dow, S&P 500 hit closing highs after jobs news

Stocks rose Friday -- with the Dow and S&P 500 notching closing highs -- after November's jobs gains blew way past estimates.

Employers added 321,000 jobs in November — the largest one-month gain in more than two years, the Labor Department said. Those numbers -- which kept the jobless rate steady at 5.8% -- far exceeded most economists' expectations of 225,000 new jobs.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended up 0.3%, a gain of 59 points. Climbing 0.2%, or about 3 and a half points, was the S&P 500. The Nasdaq composite gained 0.2%, or 11 points.

In other economic news, orders to U.S. factories slipped for a third straight month in October and would have fallen even more except for a big jump in defense orders.

The U.S. trade deficit fell slightly in October as exports rebounded while oil imports dipped to the lowest level in five years.

Asian stocks ended higher. European shares are seeing solid gains, with the DAX of Germany and the CAC 40 of France both up 2%.

Tokyo's Nikkei 225 index added 0.2%. Hong Kong's Hang Seng index rose 1.2%. Stocks in mainland China advanced 1.3%.

The Labor Department's payrolls report is expected to show 225,000 payroll gains by businesses, as well as federal, state and local governments.

On Thursday, the European Central Bank kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 0.05%, as expected.

"In spite of another downward revision to growth and inflation staff projections, the ECB delivered nothing but some futile communication changes," said Frederik Ducrozet, a senior economist at Credit Agricole Corp. "Draghi was not in a position to give any explicit signal at this point. This suggests that political hurdles to sovereign QE remain high."

Crude oil was down 46 cents at $66.50 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

U.S. stocks ended lower Thursday.

Contributing: The Associated Press.