North American stocks appear set to rise at Friday’s with reports showing strong on jobs growth in the United States and Canada.

The U.S. added 92,000 jobs to nonfarm payrolls in October and prior months were revised sharply higher, the U.S. Labor Department said today.

The unemployment rate fell to 4.4%, its lowest level since May 2001.

Economists had forecast expect growth of 125,000 jobs in October, compared to the tepid 51,000-job rise in September. The unemployment rate was predicted to hold steady at 4.6%.

Here at home, Statistics Canada said employment increased by an estimated 51,000 in October following four months of little change. The unemployment rate declined 0.2 percentage points to 6.2%.

The Canadian dollar opened at US88.32¢, up 0.11 of a cent.

il prices rose Friday, recouping some of their recent declines, on worries about the situation in Nigeria and as the market awaited economic cues and evidence of OPEC’s recently announced output cut. Light sweet crude for December delivery rose 47¢ to US$58.35 a barrel in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange by afternoon in Europe.

In earnings news, Fairfax Financial Holdings Ltd. reported a huge third-quarter loss of US$359.2 million Thursday as the insurance holding company continued to be dragged down by an accounting error at one of its subsidiaries. The company lost $20.41 a share for the three months ended Sept. 30, compared with a loss of US$208.6 million or $13.19 a share for the same 2005 quarter.

Whole Foods warned that next fiscal year revenue growth will slow to between 6% and 8%, down from 11% this year.

Video game publisher Electronic Arts upped its sales and profit forecast for the March-ending fiscal year and reported quarterly profit and sales above Wall Street forecasts.

In M&A news, software giant Oracle kept to its acquisitive ways by announcing after Thursday’s close it’s buying Stellent for US$440 million, or $13.50 a share, a 27% premium to its closing price.

In Asia trading, markets in Australia and Hong Kong again hit record highs, while the Japanese market was closed for a holiday in Tokyo.

The Hang Seng Index edged up 34.91 points, or 0.2%, to 18,749.69.

Insurers led a mild advance in most European stock markets.

Toronto stocks rebounded on Thursday from Wednesday’s big income trust selloff as investors bought up shares of dividend-paying financial services companies.

The S&P/TSX composite index gained 80.34 points, or 0.7%, at close at 12,130.73.

Overall, six of the 10 main TSX groups were up.

The financials group led the way, climbing 2.3%.

The income trust subindex which tracks 75 of the TSX’s 253 trusts, closed the day down 4.3% after losing 12.4% in the previous session.

Yellow Pages Income Fund (climbed 34¢, or 2.8%, to $The S&P/TSX Venture composite index rose 11.7 points to 2,596.95.

U.S. stocks ended lower, with the Dow Jones industrial average closing down for a fifth day, after Wal-Mart Stores Inc. gave a disappointing sales forecast and economic data raised worries about inflation and slow growth.

The Dow fell 12.48 points to 12,018.54.

The Nasdaq inched 0.33 of a point lower to 2,334.02, while the S&P 500 index gave back 0.47 of a point to 1,367.34.