A surprise leap in new U.S. jobs and much stronger than expected news from Britain's dominant services sector have bolstered hopes of a new-year rebound on both sides of the Atlantic.

Stock markets surged as the world's largest economy reported an unexpected fall in unemployment along with buoyant business activity.

The news propelled the Dow Jones industrial average to its highest close since before the 2008 financial crisis. The Dow jumped 156.82 points to 12,862.23, its highest mark since 19 May 2008, about four months before Lehman Brothers investment bank collapsed.

In the UK there was similar upbeat news from a survey suggesting services companies enjoyed their strongest growth in activity for almost a year in January. But economists were quick to cautioned against reading too much into the new-year bounce, stressing that households remained under severe strain and businesses faced continued uncertainties, particularly around the euro-zone debt crisis.

Athens is under pressure to wrap up talks on a bond swap and a €130 billion (£108 billion) bailout to avert a chaotic default, but hopes of an imminent deal faded after euro-zone finance ministers put off a meeting expected on Monday to finalize the rescue. It came as Greek unions and employers' associations blocked a critical element of an E.U. rescue deal, accusing negotiators of crippling the economy with wage cuts and tax rises that will undermine growth.

But in Britain, France and Germany, leading share indices all added more than 1.5% after the closely watched U.S. non-farm payrolls reported the fastest jobs growth in nine months. The 243,000 jobs added in January were well above market expectations of a 150,000 gain. The Labor department said the jobless rate fell to 8.3%, the lowest for three years, from 8.5% in December.