Stocks rose Friday, propelled by a better-than-expected November jobs report from the U.S. government. Stocks rallied in the first two hours of trade, leaving the Dow industrials and Standard & Poor's 500 index at new 14-month highs and the Nasdaq just short of one. But the new highs caused some investors to sell shares, leaving the major indexes only modestly higher. U.S. employers cut 11,000 jobs in November, the Labor Department reported. It was the smallest number of job losses since the beginning of the recession in December 2007 and a surprise to economists who expected that employers cut 125,000 jobs last month. The national unemployment rate also fell to 10 percent from October's 26-year high of 10.2 percent. In other economic news, U.S. factory orders rose more than expected, gaining 0.6 percent in October after rising 1.5 percent the previous month. Factory inventories rose for the first time in 13 months. --MORE
