U.S. Unemployment Hits Lowest Mark in Six Years

(Reuters) - Asian shares and the dollar firmed on Friday, catching a lift from U.S. stocks' surge to record highs after U.S. jobs data showed the lowest unemployment rate in six years and underscored the strength of the economic recovery.

MSCI's broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan .MIAPJ0000PUS was up 0.1 percent in early trade, close to this week's three-year highs, while Japan's Nikkei stock average .N225 rose 0.9 percent.

U.S. markets will closed on Friday for the July 4 Independence Day holiday, so the key monthly jobless report was released on Thursday.

The U.S. Labor Department's figures showed that nonfarm payrolls rose by 288,000 last month and the unemployment rate fell to 6.1 percent. Employment has grown at more than 200,000 in each of the last five months, the first such streak since the late 1990s.

The Dow Jones industrial average .DJI passed the 17,000 milestone and the benchmark S&P 500 .SPX rose to within 1 percent of the 2,000 level.

The jobs data pushed up the benchmark U.S. Treasury yield to a two-month high, which in turn burnished the dollar's appeal. The benchmark 10-year yield US10YT=RR stood at 2.641 percent in Asia, not far from its U.S. close of 2.648 percent on Thursday, when it rose as high as 2.69 percent.