(Close): Shares recovered after disappointing jobs numbers sent Wall Street skidding.
In early trading the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.4%, while the S&P 500 was down 1.3% and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.2%.
The US economy created 142,000 jobs in September - far lower than forecasted by economists.
"It's an absolutely weak report all around," said Tom Porcelli, chief US economist at RBC Capital Markets.
However, the market later changed direction with the Dow closing 1.2% higher at 16,472.3 points, and the S&P ending up 1.4% at 4,707.7 points.
Mace Blicksilver, director of Marblehead Asset Management, described the reversal as "confusing".
Some investors may have been sceptical of the bad jobs numbers given good data earlier in the week, such as Thursday's strong US car sales figures: "A lot of it was technical - people that were short scrambling to buy back things," he said.
Rates speculation
The jobs numbers adds to the debate over when the US Federal Reserve will begin to raise interest rates after holding them at almost zero.
Policy makers at the US Federal Reserve meet later this month to discuss that subject. Many analysts think they will keep rates on hold until next year.
"So if you have a weak report here in combination with some of the other weakness that we are seeing across the globe, the odds [of a rate hike] get dinged for December," said Mr Porcelli.
Shares in Sprint jumped almost 5% following a report that the company plans to cut up to $2.5bn (£1.64bn) in costs over the next six months.
Micron Technology soared close to 7%. It reported a fall in quarterly sales, but the fall was not as bad as analysts had expected.
