The best jobs report in five months wasn’t enough to energize the stock market early Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average barely budged as a five-day rally that brought the index to a pre-crisis high appeared to be petering out.

A poor profit report from Kraft Foods Inc. made the company the worst-performing member of the 30 stocks that make up the Dow average. The huge food company said net income fell more than 8 per cent last quarter as it spent more to promote its brands. Microsoft Corp. and Travelers Cos. were also dragging down the Dow.

The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 4.16, or 0.04 per cent, to 11,430.48 in morning trading, having been slightly higher shortly after the open.

The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2.63, or 0.2 per cent, to 1,223.69, and the Nasdaq composite index edged down 0.11 to 2,577.23.

Stocks had been rallying this week up as investors cheered a long-anticipated $600 billion economic stimulus programme  that the Federal Reserve announced on Wednesday. The details of the plan were slightly more than many were expecting, and helped lead the Dow to a 220-point charge on Thursday. That brought the Dow to a level last seen in early September 2008, just before the peak of the financial crisis.

Those gains were nowhere to be seen early Friday, even though the Labour Department’s report delivered the best news on jobs the market has seen in five months. Employers added a total of 151,000 jobs in October, the first gain since May and far more than analysts had been expecting.

The payrolls gain was tempered by news that the national unemployment rate, which is measured by a separate survey of households, remained stuck at 9.6 per cent for the third straight month. The economy needs to consistently add at least 100,000 new jobs a month just to keep up with the expansion of the population. In September, employers cut 95,000 jobs.

Unemployment has remained stubbornly high, just below 10 per cent, despite the official end of the recession in June of 2009 and other bright spots in the economy, including gains in manufacturing and retail spending. That high jobless rate has helped delay a rebound in the housing market and frustrated investors, everyday Americans and policymakers in Washington.

Speaking shortly after the jobs report came out, President Barack Obama said he was “open to any idea, any proposal” to help jump-start the economy. Obama, whose Democrat party lost the House of Representatives in mid-term elections on Tuesday, said the country can’t afford two more years of partisan gridlock in Washington.

In corporate news, Kraft fell 3 per cent after its disappointing earnings report, while American International Group Inc. fell 2.6 per cent after the bailed-out insurer reported a $2.4 billion loss for the third quarter, dragged down by hefty charges tied to selling off assets.

Shares of Starbucks Corp. jumped 3.9 per cent after reporting late Thursday that its earnings doubled last quarter. The world’s largest coffee chain also raised its target for profits next year.

Overseas markets were slightly higher. Germany’s DAX, France’s CAC-40 and Britain’s FT-SE were each up about 0.2 per cent in afternoon trading in Europe, having been down slightly in earlier trading.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 jumped 2.9 per cent after that country’s central bank outlined details of its own programme to stimulate its economy by buying up debt securities.