Energy shares, tame jobs data lift Dow

NEW YORK (Reuters) -The Dow rose on Thursday, a day after the blue-chip average entered a bear market, on relief payrolls data was not as weak as some had feared and with another record oil price boosting energy shares.

The broader S&P 500 index was little changed in a pre-holiday shortened trading session and the Nasdaq composite index fell after graphics chip maker Nvidia (NVDA.O) slashed its outlook, citing global market weakness. That raised concerns about the outlook for the computer industry.

Oil jumped above $145 a barrel before the Independence Day holiday on Friday when U.S. markets will be closed. Exxon Mobil Corp (XOM.N) and Chevron Corp (CVX.N) gave the biggest boosts to the Dow and the S&P 500.

The Labor Department said employers cut 62,000 workers from their payrolls in June for the sixth straight monthly decline, roughly in line with economists' expectations.

"The (payrolls) numbers weren't as bad as they could have been," said Joe Saluzzi, co-manager of trading at Themis Trading in Chatham, New Jersey. "Some people had feared 100,000 in job losses or more."

Shares of big manufacturers like 3M (MMM.N) rose after the jobs report, aiding the Dow's advance.

Aetna Inc (AET.N) and Health Net Inc (HNT.N) shares kept gains in check on the S&P 500 after Goldman Sachs recommended clients sell the two health-insurers' stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI rose 73.03 points, or 0.65 percent, to 11,288.54, while the Standard & Poor's 500 Index .SPX eked out a gain of 1.38 points, or 0.11 percent, to 1,262.90. The Nasdaq Composite Index .IXIC fell 6.08 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,245.38.

For the shortened week, the Dow ended down 0.5 percent, the S&P 500 finished 1.2 percent lower and the Nasdaq shed 3 percent. This was the fifth straight weekly decline for the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq, and the Dow's third straight week of losses.

Nvidia shares sank 30.7 percent to $12.49 and were the biggest drag on a semiconductor index .SOXX, which shed 1 percent.

Exxon Mobil shares rose 1 percent, to $88.27 and Chevron rose 1.2 percent, to $98.63. U.S. oil futures gained 74 cents to $144.32 a barrel, having earlier hit an all-time high of $145.85.

3M (MMM.N) rose 1.4 percent to $69.46, and United Technologies (UTX.N) gained 2.3 percent to $61.05.

The Morgan Stanley Health-care Payor index .HMO fell 3.1 percent. Aetna shares dropped 6.7 percent to $37.14 and Health Net Inc (HNT.N) tumbled 12 percent to $22.55.

The S&P 500 briefly dipped into bear territory after the Institute for Supply Management reported that the services sector shrank in June, surprising Wall Street economists who had expected an expansion. The report also showed inflation pressures soared to a record high for the survey's 11-year history.

But the S&P 500 closed above its lows for the session, officially avoiding the start of a bear market, which is a decline of at least 20 percent from an index's recent peak.

Trading was light on the New York Stock Exchange, with about 931 million shares changing hands in the shortened session, below last year's estimated daily average of roughly 1.9 billion, while on Nasdaq, about 1.4 billion shares traded, also below last year's daily average of 2.17 billion.

Declining stocks outnumbered advancing ones by 2 to 1 on the NYSE by 8 to 5 on the Nasdaq.

(Editing by Kenneth Barry)