Wall Street looked set to open on the upside on Friday after government data showed that more than twice as many jobs were created in October as economists had expected.

The report could help stocks recover from Thursday's market tumble that wiped out all the gains notched up after the Federal Reserve's interest-rate cut on Wednesday.

U.S. employers created 166,000 nonfarm jobs in October, the Labor Department said. Economists had a median forecast of 80,000 new jobs.

It was really an important number today because of the financial company news yesterday, said Marc Pado, U.S. market strategist at Cantor Fitzgerald & Co in San Francisco, adding:

This number lifts the expectations for the entire holiday season and the consumer. You have a strong GDP (gross domestic product) number, a rate cut and now jobs. It was critical to outweigh the implications of yesterday.

U.S. third-quarter GDP grew at a 3.9 percent annual rate, the fastest pace since the beginning of 2006, according to a government report Wednesday.

S&P 500 futures were up 5.4 points, above fair value, a formula to evaluate pricing taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 42 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 14.5 points.

On the earnings front, transatlantic exchange operator NYSE Euronext posted sharply higher earnings, sending its shares up 2.8 percent to $93.50 in pre-market trading.

In trading after the closing bell on Thursday, Las Vegas Sands shares plunged 14.6 percent to $107 in pre-market trading after the casino operator posted a third-quarter loss.

Electronic Artsstock rose 3 percent to $60.49 before the opening bell after the video game publisher late on Thursday reported earnings that beat expectations.

(Additional reporting by Caroline Valetkevitch)

U.S.