NEW YORK, Jan 6: US stocks dipped in early trade on Friday despite better-than-expected official data showing that job creation surged and the unemployment rate fell a fourth straight month in December.

At 1530 GMT, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 53.66 points (0.43 percent) at 12,362.04.

The broad-based S&P 500 slipped 4.72 points (0.37 per cent) to 1,276.34, while the tech-dominated Nasdaq Composite pared 2.86 (0.11 per cent) to 2,667.00.

The data of recent weeks “have been signaling firmer labour market conditions, and now they’re here,” said Ian Shepherdson of High Frequency Economics.“The gains are broad-based, with strength in construction, manufacturing, retail, leisure and education,” he said.

Bank of America fell back 3.7 per cent after a big jump on Thursday on rumours that the government was preparing a plan to boost the housing market that would aid banks weighed down by huge portfolios of bad mortgage loans.

Alcoa fell 2.5 per cent despite its announcement late on Thursday that it would shutter a big chunk of its global smelting capacity to pare costs as aluminum prices sag.

Netflix jumped 4.3 per cent after releasing figures showing a rise in use of its streaming video service and amid ongoing speculation it could be bought by a larger media company.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 1.96 per cent from 1.99 per cent on Thursday, while the 30-year rose fell to 3.03 per cent from 3.06 per cent.—AFP