A sharp jump in December hiring lifted the markets to a higher close with the Dow rising 31 points to 11,722. Nasdaq gained 20 points to 2702.

On the upside

Wedbush Morgan upgraded NCR (NYSE: NCR) to an Outperform rating.

Barclays Capital upgraded Boyd Gaming (NYSE: BYD) to an Overweight rating.

Cowen and Co. upgraded Lumber Liquidators (NYSE: LL) to an Outperform rating.

On the downside

J Capital wrote that China Green Agriculture (NYSE: CGA) greatly inflated its revenue and earnings in its financial reports.

Nordion (NYSE: NDZ) extended its contract to supply Lantheus Medical Imaging with Molybdenum-99 but the stock price fell.

Investors locked in profits on XOMA (Nasdaq: XOMA).

In the broad market, advancing issues outpaced decliners by a margin of 7 to 5 on the NYSE and by nearly 5 to 2 on Nasdaq. The Russell 2000 which tracks small cap stocks climbed 9 points to 795.