LONDON – European stock markets and Wall Street futures shot higher Friday after much better than expected U.S. jobs data fueled optimism about the pace of recovery in the world’s largest economy.

In Europe, the FTSE 100 index of leading British shares was up 34.91 points, or 0.7 percent, at 5,347.91 while Germany’s DAX rose 56.29 points, or 1 percent, to 5,826.64. The CAC-40 in France was up 39.18 points, or 1 percent, at 3,838.28.

Meanwhile, Dow futures surged 125 points, or 1.2 percent, to 10,477 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 futures rose 14.5 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,112.50.

Stocks had been trading lower before the data showed a surprise fall in the U.S. unemployment rate in November to 10 percent from 10.2 percent and that only 11,000 jobs were lost during the month, the lowest for two years. Investors were anticipating an unchanged unemployment rate and a near 150,000 rise in the number of unemployed.

Though technically out of recession, the U.S. economy has been shedding jobs at a hefty rate for months.

The upbeat data turned around stock markets in Europe and stoked hopes about the upcoming U.S. open. The monthly jobs figures often affect investor sentiment for a week or two and could help the nine-month bull run continue through to the year-end.

“It does look like we’re seeing some stabilization in the U.S. jobs market which is crucial for the U.S. economic recovery and reflects the U.S. recovery,” said Neil Mackinnon, global strategist at VTB Capital.

Mackinnon said the jobs news is likely to mean that the U.S. Federal Reserve will start to withdraw its extraordinary liquidity measures introduced over the last couple of years sooner than previously thought, though he said “we are a long way from a hike in the Fed funds rate.”

On Thursday, the European Central Bank announced that it was beginning the process of withdrawing liquidity from the markets but stressed that talk of a rate hike was premature.

The dollar was also in demand after the jobs data as bond yields spiked up — the euro dropped around a cent to $1.49. Meanwhile, the dollar pushed up around 1 percent to 89.27 yen.

The fluctuations in the dollar also affected energy and commodity markets. Gold was down 1 percent at $1,206.50 while benchmark crude for January deliver fell 58 cents to $75.88 a barrel. Since both are priced in dollars, they typically move in opposite directions to the U.S. currency.

Earlier in Asia, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng closed down 55.72 points, or 0.3 percent, to 22,498.15, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock average bucked the trend and ended up 44.92 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,022.59.

Elsewhere in Asia, Australia’s market dropped 1.5 percent while Taiwan’s market shed 0.4 percent.

However, Shanghai’s market gained 1.6 percent and South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.6 percent after the government said the economy, Asia’s fourth-largest, expanded a revised 3.2 percent in the third quarter. That was a better performance than initially estimated thanks to stronger growth in manufacturing, exports and services.

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AP Business Writer Jeremiah Marquez in Hong Kong contributed to this report.