European and US stocks advanced Friday and the dollar fell as investors digested key American jobs data that dampened expectations of more aggressive Federal Reserve interest rate hikes. After firm gains in Europe, major indices in New York shook off early weakness and finished firmly higher, with the Dow piling on more than two percent. The much-anticipated monthly government jobs report was solid, with the United States economy adding a better-than-expected 223,000 jobs in December as unemployment dipped to 3.5 percent. But analysts pointed to a tempering of wage growth, which was up 4.6 percent on a 12-month basis through December, compared with a 4.8 percent reading for the prior month. That was followed by a surprisingly poor services sector report from the Institute for Supply Management. The report showed the first contraction since spring of 2020, with the business activity index and new orders index both plunging.