Wall Street rises in volatile session ahead of jobs data

NEW YORK: U.S. stocks ended slightly higher on Thursday as investors, on edge after recent turmoil in China's markets, looked toward a key U.S. jobs report that may figure in the Federal Reserve's decision about when to lift interest rates.

Major U.S. indices at one point rose strongly over 1 percent but relinquished those gains to dip into negative territory as worries about China's economy weighed on traders' minds, though the Dow Jones industrial average and S&P 500 managed to hold on to end modestly higher.