Dow Finishes Higher on Jobs Report

Campbell Soup (CPB) also topped earnings expectations Friday morning by 3 cents in reporting a fourth-quarter profit of 33 cents a share. But sales declined by 1% to $1.52 billion, and the company's guidance underwhelmed. Shares dropped 3% to $36.20.

Walgreen (WAG) said its comparable-store sales in August rose 2.1%, which was below projections. The stock finished flat at $28.30 a share.

Shares of Mariner Energy (ME) were recapturing some of Thursday's losses, adding 1.7% to $23.14 today. News broke Thursday of a fire on a platform the firm owns in the Gulf of Mexico. The Coast Guard initially said a mile-long oil sheen was seen near the platform. But the Coast Guard later backed off those statements late Thursday, saying there was none.

Goldman Sachs (GS) will be splitting up its prop trading unit, Bloomberg News reported, to comply with recently passed financial reform legislation. Shares rose 5.3% to $147.25.

In the U.S., eyes will also be focused on the Eastern Seaboard as Hurricane Earl, which was downgraded today, began its descent along the region.

In commodity markets, crude oil for October delivery lost 42 cents to settle at $74.60 a barrel, and the December gold contract finished lower by $2.30 at $1,251.10 an ounce.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury note was down 24/32, boosting the yield to 2.712%.

Meanwhile, the dollar was trading lower against a basket of currencies, with the dollar index down by 0.5%.

Overseas, Hong Kong's Hang Seng rose 0.5% higher, while Japan's Nikkei gained 0.6%. The FTSE in London went ahead by 1.1%, and the DAX in Frankfurt improved by 0.8%.

--Written by Sung Moss in New York.

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