NEW YORK (AP) — A better-than-expected employment report is sending stocks higher in early trading on Wall Street. The news is also pushing the dollar higher and prices for bonds and gold lower, as traders bet that the Federal Reserve will soon start raising its benchmark interest rate.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The unemployment rate has dropped to its lowest point since July of 2008. The government says employers added 248,000 jobs last month in a burst of hiring that drove the jobless rate down to 5.9 percent. The Labor Department also says employers added 69,000 more jobs in July and August than previously estimated.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A private survey finds U.S. service firms expanded at a healthy pace in September, although it was slightly below the record pace set in August. The Institute for Supply Management says its service index was 58.6 last month, down from a reading of 59.6 in August that was the strongest level recorded since the measure was introduced in January 2008. Hiring at service firms, where most Americans work, rose for a seventh straight month.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit has fallen for a fourth straight month as exports rose to an all-time high. Still, the imbalance so far this year is running 4.2 percent higher than the same period in 2013. The Commerce Department says the deficit dropped half a percent in August to $40.1 billion, compared to a revised $40.3 billion in July. Exports increased 0.2 percent to a record $198.5 billion while imports rose by 0.1 percent.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is putting a manufacturing focus on his revived economic message today. Obama visits a steel manufacturer in Princeton, Indiana, as part of a new fall political campaign push to promote his pocketbook policies and to claim credit for the upturn in the economy. The visit falls on the third annual observance of National Manufacturing Day.

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