NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stocks finished Friday's session and the week with strong gains, as a not-as-bad-as-feared August jobs report provided some relief from concerns over the slowing U.S. economy. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 127.83 points, or 1.2%, to end at 10,447.93. Blue-chip gains were led by a 2.7% gain in shares of JP Morgan Chase , up 2.7%, and Cisco Systems , up 2.5%. For the week, the blue-chip average rose 2.9%, ending a three-week losing streak. The S&P 500 index rose 14.41 points, or 1.3%, to end at 1,104.51, led by the financials sector, up 2.2%. The broad index rose 3.8% for the week, also posting a weekly gain for the first time in four weeks. The Nasdaq Composite rose 33.74 points, or 1.5%, to 2,233.75 on Friday, for a weekly gain of 3.7%.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- AMR Corp. said late Friday that August traffic at American Airlines rose 3.1% to 11.51 billion revenue passenger miles from 11.17 billion a year ago. A revenue passenger mile equals one passenger flown one mile. August capacity also increased by 3.2% to 13.61 billion available seat miles. Load factor, or the percentage of seats filled with passengers, for August declined to 84.6% from 84.7% a year ago.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- In a move reflecting the recovering business of health of airlines, the pilots union for Continental Airlines said Friday that the carrier plans to recall more than 100 furloughed pilots over the next 18 months. Capt. Jay Pierce, chairman of Continental's pilot unit of the Air Line Pilots Association, credited growing passenger traffic and anticipated aircraft deliveries for the additional work. Continental Airlines furloughed 147 pilots in September, 2008. A small number, 15, were recalled earlier this year. The recalled pilots return for training sometime in the fourth quarter. No one from Continental was available for comment.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Crude-oil futures declined Friday, as a better-than-expected jobs report wasn't enough to give prices a long-standing lift. Oil for October delivery declined 42 cents, or 0.6%, to $74.60 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A UPS cargo plane crashed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates at noon Eastern on Friday during takeoff, with two crew members on board, the parcel service company said. "At this time, we have not confirmed any casualties," UPS said in a statement. The 747-400 was headed to Cologne, Germany.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Silver closed at a two-year high Friday, rallying 1.4% and carried by its safe-haven and industrial appeals. Gold closed lower, although the metal came off session lows. Silver for December delivery added 28 cents to $19.95 an ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. Gold for December delivery declined $2.30, or 0.2%, to $1,251.10 an ounce; the metal had lost more than $10 at times. Copper settled at $3.50, a multi-month high for the metal.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is closing its principal-strategies business, responsible for investing the firm's own capital, Bloomberg reported Friday on its website, citing two people familiar with the decision. The move is to comply with new U.S. regulations aimed at curbing risk. Goldman employs about 65 to 70 employees in the unit, the news agency said. Some of them may be transferred to other divisions within the company while the team in Asia may try to set up a new hedge fund, according to Bloomberg. Earlier this week, JP Morgan Chase & Co. said it will shut down its proprietary trading, according to media reports.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- A 7.2 magnitude earthquake struck southern New Zealand at 4:35 a.m. Saturday local time, according to the U.S. Geological Survey on Friday. The quake, which struck at 9:35 a.m. Pacific time, was centered 19 miles northwest of Christchurch, and 186 miles southwest of Wellington. Earlier, the USGS had reported a preliminary magnitude of 7.4.

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LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Brazil's Petroleo Brasileiro SA traded in Sao Paulo and the U.S. climbed Friday after the oil giant said it plans to raise about $64 billion, marking the world's largest offering of shares, to fund its plans for deepwater oil exploration and development. Preferred shares of Petrobras, the most actively traded, rose 3% in Sao Paulo, and U.S.-listed shares gained 3.1% to $37.13. Late Wednesday, Petrobras reached a deal to pay $42.5 billion in new shares to the Brazilian government in exchange for rights to explore roughly 5 billion barrels of oil equivalent in offshore fields.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Delta Air Lines said Friday traffic in August climbed 1.1% to 18.94 billion revenue passenger miles from 18.73 billion in August 2009. A revenue passenger mile is equal to one passenger flown one mile. Total capacity last month rose 1.2% to 21.91 billion available seat miles. Load factor, or the percentage of available seats filled with passengers, slid 1 percentage point to 85.8%.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The Obama administration is looking for stimulus measures that are effective, said Alan Krueger, the Treasury's assistant secretary for economic policy on Friday. "The President has asked his economic team to review measures that are targeted and responsible," Krueger told reporters. "We're looking for responsible policies that ensure that the recovery in the job market continues and we are looking for programs that deliver bang for the buck and are going to be effective," he said. The budget deficit should not be an obstacle, Krueger suggested. "We have a jobs deficit and a budget deficit. I don't see why we can't make progress on both," he said. Krueger called the August jobs report "reassuring" and said there were signs that a normal recovery was on-going. At first, the recovery was boosted by government and inventories and now the "handoff" to the private sector is underway despite bumps along the road, he said.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Luxury goods company LVMH said Friday that the Paris Court of Appeal found eBay liable for selling counterfeit Louis Vuitton and Christian Dior products during 2001 to 2006 and ordered the online retailer to pay a fine of 5.7 million euros ($7.34 million). The ruling upholds a similar decision by the Paris Commercial Court in June 2008. "This decision also dismissed eBay's claim for exemption on the ground that it was acting as a mere provider of hosting services," said LVMH in a statement. In addition to the penalty, the decision leaves open the possibility for the claimants to seek redress in foreign courts, LVMH said.

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LONDON (MarketWatch) -- Worldwide sales of Mercedes-Benz vehicles rose 22% to 81,000 units in August, German car maker Daimler AG said Friday. It was the tenth consecutive month of double-digit increase. Daimler said it aims to achieve double-digit growth at Mercedes-Benz for 2010.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- BP PLC plans to stick to its pledge to set up a $20 billion spill fund for claims related to its Deepwater Horizon explosion and subsquent leak of the Macondo well in the Gulf of Mexico, but it's arguing that it must be allowed to drill for more oil to help pay for damages associated with the worst oil spill in U.S. history, according to company officials. David Nagel, executive vice president for BP America, said in a New York Times article published Thursday that BP needs to keep production fields going to avoid any substantial impact on its cash flow. Without drilling, it'll be harder for BP to fund the damages program, he said. BP is fighting a legislative proposal to bar any company from receiving permits to drill on the Outer Continental Shelf if more than 10 fatalities had occurred at its offshore or onshore facilities.

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SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- The Canadian market rose slightly Friday with most sectors trading in the black led by financial and industrial stocks. The S&P/TSX Composite Index advanced 3 points to 12,114 in recent activity. The S&P/TSX Capped Financials Index was up 0.8%, and the S&P/TSX Capped Industrials Index rose 0.6%.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement said Friday it has launched an investigation into the fire on the Mariner Energy Vermillion 380 Platform. "We are all relieved that the 13 personnel on the platform were rescued safely," director Michael Bromwich said. "We are continuing to closely monitor this situation, which will be investigated fully." The probe will help determine what happened, how it happened, and what enforcement action should be taken if any laws or regulations were violated, he said.

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- Staffing stocks climbed across the globe Friday in reaction to news that private-sector employment in the U.S. improved in August, including a 17,000 gain in temporary help. This industry has added 392,000 jobs since a recent employment low in September 2009, the Labor Department said. Gainers included TrueBlue , SFN Group , Monster Worldwide , Manpower , Adecco and Randstand .

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WASHINGTON (MarketWatch) -- The creation of 67,000 private-sector jobs in August was "positive news," President Barack Obama said Friday, but job growh needs to be faster. Obama said he'll discuss more job-creation ideas next week and again urged Senate Repubilcans to stop delaying a small business bill. He said there's no "quick fix" for the economy but said U.S. markets remain "the most dynamic in the world."

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BOSTON (MarketWatch) -- Celldex Therapeutics shares plunged in early trading Friday after the biotech group announced that Pfizer Inc. was pulling out of a pact to develop Celldex's cancer vaccine CDX-110. The product is currently in Phase II testing for the treatment of brain cancer. Shares of Celldex fell 30% to $3.29. Meanwhile, the drug sector's two key indexes moved a bit higher. The NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index edged up 0.6% to 293 and the NYSE Arca Biotechnology Index rose 0.9% to 1121.

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NEW YORK (MarketWatch) -- U.S. stock gains were tempered a bit Friday after a key U.S. service-sector gauge showed slower expansion in August, offsetting market cheer over the better-than-expected August jobs report. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 109.29 points to 10,429.39. The S&P 500 was up 11.91 points at 1,102.01. The Nasdaq Composite added 29.05 points to 2,229.06.

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