NEW YORK, Oct 4 — Wall Street stocks rose early today after a US government report showed unemployment at a 50-year low, mitigating somewhat the fears of a recession.

US stocks have been under pressure much of the week following lacklustre economic reports, but rebounded after the employment report said the US added 136,000 jobs in September, which was below expectations.

But the jobless rate fell to 3.5 per cent, matching a rate last seen in December 1969.

National Association of Realtors chief economist Lawrence Yun called the report "comforting,” while cautioning that employment conditions are often a lagging economic indicators.

FTN Financial’s Chris Low said the report was "a little better than expected, but still not good.”

About 10 minutes into trading, the Dow Jones Industrial Average stood at 26,330.74, up 0.5 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 also gained 0.5 per cent to 2,924.29, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index advanced 0.6 per cent to 7,918.80.

Among individual companies, Apple rose 1.7 per cent after a Nikkei report said the company boosted production of new iPhones in response to unexpectedly strong demand for new models.

HP plunged 9.0 per cent after unveiling plans to cut more than 10 per cent of its global workforce, which would mean up to 9,000 jobs. The company said that the reorganisation would save about US$1 billion (RM4.2 billion) annually by the end of fiscal 2022. — AFP