U.S. equity markets set new record highs on Friday, as investors decided to play on the positive side of the employment figures released early this morning.

At around 11:00 a.m. (New York time), the Dow Jones index was up 0.1% at 44,808.8 points, while the broader S&P 500 was up 0.3% at 6094.3 points, having reached a new high of almost 6100 points.

The Nasdaq Composite was up 0.7% at 19,833.6 points, having reached a new high of almost 6100 points.833.6 points, after also managing to set a new all-time high above 19,863.1 points.

With weekly gains of 1% and 3% respectively, the S&P and Nasdaq are thus heading for a third consecutive week of gains.

Investors felt that the positive aspects of the employment report unveiled by the Labor Department this morning before the opening reinforced the prospect of another Fed rate cut this month.

While the US economy created 227,000 new jobs last month, a figure well above expectations, the unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 4.2%, whereas it was expected to remain stable.

From the analysts' point of view, this data, though mixed, should not prevent the Federal Reserve from continuing its current cycle of rate cuts.

This employment report shows that the US labor market is continuing to deteriorate slowly but surely", says Bastien Drut, Head of Strategy and Economic Research at CPR AM.

"This perfectly corroborates the idea expressed by Jerome Powell at his last press conference that the labor market had not stabilized and that the Fed must therefore continue its monetary normalization", adds the economist.

To confirm this view, the Fedwatch barometer now gives a probability of almost 89% of a further rate cut at the end of the December 17-18 meeting, compared with 66% a week ago.

On the bond front, government bond yields started to fall again in response to the employment statistics, which allayed fears of a possible pause in Fed rate cuts.

The yield on 10-year Treasuries, often considered a good barometer of market sentiment on the health of the economy, eased towards 4.16%.

The dollar is attempting to recover against the euro, which is back below the 1.0570 mark, meaning that parity should end the week at almost the same level as it ended the previous one.

On the oil market, crude oil prices, down by more than 1%, are heading for a second consecutive week in negative territory, despite signs of a lasting reduction in supply from OPEC.

On the value front, Hewlett-Packard Enterprise climbed 9% after posting a solid end to the financial year, leading analysts to anticipate several growth drivers next year.

Dollar General gained more than 3% in the wake of a double recommendation upgrade by BofA analysts, who moved directly from 'underperform' to 'buy' on the discount retailer.

Accenture also gained more than 3% following positive advice from Goldman Sachs, which believes the group is best positioned to benefit from a possible rebound in spending on technology services next year.

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