MEXICO CITY – Mexico's stocks rose Friday as global shares jumped on investors' relief that dismal U.S. jobs figures were not as bad as pessimists had feared. The benchmark IPC stock index closed 1.09 percent higher at 19,865.22 points, following two days of heavy losses.

The peso firmed 2.43 percent at the central bank's final 1:30 p.m.
local time reference to 12.76 per dollar, recovering from a two-day
sell-off in emerging market currencies.

U.S. employers slashed an unexpectedly steep 240,000 jobs in October, but financial markets had braced for a much worse outcome in the days before the release of the data.

Some investors found it encouraging that U.S. President-elect Barack
Obama met with top economic and business advisers Friday,
underscoring the urgency he attaches to the economy's problems.

Some investors also moved to unwind bets made against the peso
earlier in the week ahead of Friday's U.S. employment report, traders
said.

Another report Friday showed that rising energy prices sent Mexican
inflation to its highest in seven years in October, keeping pressure
on the central bank to hold interest rates steady despite signs of a
sharp economic slowdown.

In debt trading, the yield on the government's benchmark 10-year peso bond fell 2 basis points to 8.95 percent.