Wall Street stocks on Friday brushed aside data that showed the US unemployment rate hit a 14-year high and fresh fears over the future of the country’s automakers to recover some of their election week losses.

Observers concurred that the 240,000 job cuts last month – coupled with a substantial downward revision to the September figures – were abysmal. Yet some analysts expected losses of up to 300,000 and strategists said traders had come to expect the worst.