NEW YORK - UNITED States stocks made modest gains on Friday after jobs data that offered fresh evidence the economic slowdown is not as severe as feared, but technology shares faded on a surprise loss from Sun Microsystems.

The government's stronger-than-expected April payrolls report helped oil stocks rebound sharply by easing fears about weaker US demand for energy. Adding to the energy rally were higher-than-expected profit from Marathon Oil and Chevron, the second-largest US oil company.

'People are willing to accept the fact that we may have a very slow, stagnant economy, but the prospect of a sharp downturn seems to be less and less likely, hence the sigh of relief,' said Mr Peter Kenny, managing director at Knight Equity Markets in Jersey City, New Jersey.

The Dow Jones industrial average was up 48.20 points, or 0.37 per cent, at 13,058.20.

The Standard & Poor's 500 Index was up 4.56 points, or 0.32 per cent, at 1,413.90.

The Nasdaq Composite Index was down 3.72 points, or 0.15 per cent, at 2,476.99.

For the week, the Dow gained 1.3 per cent, the S&P rose 1.2 per cent and the Nasdaq advanced 2.2 per cent.