Despite rise in unemployment rate, the US markets rallied. Tim Ghriskey, chief investment officer of Solaris Asset Management in Bedford Hills, New York, said:"Big-cap stocks are the ones with leverage issues, but they seem to have picked up a lot of interest from investors of late. We're certainly seeing continued evidence of economic improvement -- except on the employment side -- but even there, perhaps we may have seen about the worst."

Dow Jones rose 17 points at 10,023. The S&P 500 index added 2 at 1,069. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 7 points to 2,112.