Strong jobs number means markets 'have a date with a rate hike'

Strong hiring and healthy wage gains in February put the Fed on course to hike rates next Wednesday for only the third time in 10 years.

Employers increased payrolls by 235,000, higher than the 190,000 economists expected. Average hourly wages were up 2.8 percent year over year, with the February pace up 0.2 percent and January wage gains, up a revised 0.2 percent.

"We have a date with a rate hike," said Ward McCarthy, chief financial economist at Jefferies. "This is pure muscle across the board."

Stock futures rallied, but bond yields slipped. "The bond market was fearing the worst and didn't get it," McCarthy said.

While there were whispers in the bond market of a much higher jobs number, ADP's 298,000 payrolls Wednesday set some expectations very high. The yield moved slightly lower Friday to 1.36 percent, and the was at 2.59 percent.

Construction gained 58,000 workers, helped by warmer winter weather, and manufacturing gained 28,000 jobs.