US stocks hover near all-time highs.

Wall Street hovered near all-time highs on Friday, as easing Middle East tensions and technology stocks offset concerns about slower-than-expected US jobs growth in December.

US stocks opened at record highs, brushing off government data that showed US jobs increased by 145,000 last month, below the forecast for a 164,000 rise.

The pace of hiring remained more than enough to keep the longest economic expansion in history on track, while Friday's report also showed the jobless rate holding near a 50-year low of 3.5% and average hourly earnings rising 0.1% in the previous month.

Bank stocks were down 0.7%, causing Wall Street to pare some gains in late morning trading.

At 11:45 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 68.90 points, or 0.24%, at 28,888.00, the SandP 500 was up 0.34 points, or 0.01%, at 3,275.04 and the Nasdaq Composite was...