By William L. Watts, MarketWatch
LONDON (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock index futures turned higher Friday after the U.S. Labor Department said nonfarm payrolls posted their smallest fall since August.
S&P 500 futures rose 8.3 points to 1,003.20 and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 18 points to 1,619.25. Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 65 points to 9,295,
Other asset classes moved in a direction consistent with greater risk taking: oil futures rose 52 cents to $72.46 a barrel, the dollar climbed against the Japanese yen, while Treasurys fell.
U.S. nonfarm payrolls fell by 247,000 in July, the 19th consecutive month of job losses, but lower than economist estimates.
Job losses in May and June weren't quite as bad as first reported; payrolls were revised up by 43,000 for the two months. A separate survey of households showed some improvement in July, with the unemployment rate falling to 9.4% from 9.5% in June. Economists were expecting the jobless rate to rise to 9.7%. See full story.
Elsewhere, American International Group (AIG 26.35, +3.82, +16.96%) continued its surge as the government-backed insurer swung to a $1.8 billion profit, with its per-share profit excluding items beat consensus estimates by over $1 a share. AIG shot up 19% to $26.87 in pre-market action.
Another government-backed financial, the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS 15.82, -2.47, -13.51%) , slumped 14% as it reported a $1.7 billion first-half loss and said it doesn't expect a substantial improvement until 2011.
European stocks had been on the defensive amid cautious trade ahead of the data, but then turned higher.
