Stocks open higher after solid jobs report; oil price sinks

Dow and S&P 500 futures were both up 0.2 percent.

For Hughes, a cut in the discount rate or more QE "will see the data take centre stage as investors await something to drive EURUSD (the euro against the dollar) even further lower". The ECB also indicated that it would extend its asset purchase program by at least six months until the end of March 2017.

Norihiro Fujito, senior investment strategist at Mitsubishi UFJ Morgan Stanley Securities in Tokyo, said: "It's like doing so much sweet talking before your marriage that you set it up to be a big disappointment". "The marked squeeze higher on Draghi's underwhelming easing suggested that the market was not paring back short positions into the meeting, but adding to them".

Draghi also announced Thursday cuts in euro area inflation expectations with the forecast for 2016 to reach 1.0 percent rather than 1.1 percent previously forecast.

Intercontinental Exchange's US Dollar Index, which tracks the greenback against six peers, rallied 0.3 per cent to 97.887. 9933 on the dollar on Thursday. The dollar was last up 0.29 percent at 122.960 yen, and was last up 0.41 percent against the Swiss franc at 0.99700 franc.

The Chinese yuan too firmed against the dollar, with the People's Bank of China setting the midpoint rate at 6.3851, the strongest gain in a month.

Chinese stock markets were also down with the Shanghai Composite index down 1.5% and the Hang Seng index in Hong Kong falling by 1.1%.

The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note was 2.278 per cent, compared with 2.328 per cent Thursday. "Today, the pain trade could come from disappointing U.S.jobs number. However, his long-awaited early Christmas afternoon left many market participants disappointed like small kids who receive less and smaller presents thn expected on Christmas eve", said Carsten Brzeski, chief economist for ING DiBa.

However, in the commodity space, the United States Oil ETF (USO) rose 2.3% on December 3, as investors' focus shifted towards the OPEC (Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries) meeting on December 4, 2015.

"While markets would probably respond very negatively to a number of around 100,000, I don't think even this would be enough to deter Fed officials, so the bar really is very low, " said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at Oanda.

The first four days of December have been incredibly choppy.

The expected rise in U.S. rates and slowing Chinese demand failed to dent copper, which looked like snapping a seven-week losing streak.

The ECB overnight deposit rate was cut from -0.2% to -0.3% to push banks to lend instead of parking money at the ECB, Mr Timms said.