The Dow pulled off a stunning comeback, finishing above the 10,000 mark after being down sharply for most of the day — even falling below 9,900 — amid worries about the recovery and Europe's debt woes.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 10.05, or 0.1 percent, to close at 10,012.23. Though, it ended down about half a percent for the week, marking the fourth straight decline, in which it lost nearly 6 percent.
Market pros said the gains were most likely bargain hunting as the biggest gainers were technology and materials — two of the most beaten-down sectors in the recent rout.
"It's bargain hunting in an oversold market," Cleveland Rueckert, market analyst at Birinyi Associates, told Reuters. "At least in the short term, selling was overdone."
The Nasdaq ended up 0.7 percent, led by Applied Materials, Cisco and Oracle.
Intel was the biggest gainer on the Dow, followed by Cisco and Alcoa.
Cisco actually had the most positive impact on the Dow this week, after CEO John Chambers delivered an upbeat outlook. Boeing had the most negative impact, down nearly 4 percent.
The dollar surged to its highest since May against the euro, sending both oil and gold lower. Oil dropped to around $70 a barrel before settling at $71.19, and gold hit a three-month lowaround $1,043 an ounce, before settling at $1,052.80.
The jobs report showed employers cut 20,000 jobsfrom nonfarm payrolls in January, while the unemployment rate fell to 9.7 percent.
Economists had actually been expecting payrolls to increase by 5,000 last month and for the unemployment rate to tick up to 10.1 percent.
In addition to the unexpected job loss for January, the prior five months through December were revised to show an additional 245,000 jobs were lost than previously thought, but economists said take it in stride.
"Overall, improving payroll trend continues but progress is slow," Ian Shepherdson, chief US economist at High Frequency Economics, wrote in a note to clients.
Construction, transportation and warehousing continued to report job losses, while temporary employment and retail actually added jobs.
In the day's other economic news, consumer credit fell for an 11th straight month in December, but the decline was much less than expected.
The CBOE volatility index, the market's fear gauge, spiked above 29 before settling back down around 26 amid a fresh debate about whether or not the market is entering a correction.
