Wall Street was poised for a strong open on Friday after a better-than-expected jobs report lifted investor optimism on the economy.

Stock index futures climbed 1 percent after the Labor Department said employment fell for a third straight month in August, but the decline was far less than expected. Also, private payrolls showed more growth than forecast.

This was a much better-than-expected report. Not only were the August numbers pretty good, but the July numbers were also revised up -- that is to say better, said Phil Orlando, chief equity market strategist at Federated Investors in New York.

(Economic) numbers have started to get a little better, and this is another big number in that direction. This ought to drive the market higher, given relatively light volumes.

Trading volume this week has been limp ahead of the extended U.S. Labor Day holiday weekend.

S&P 500 futures gained 10.4 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration on the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures jumped 95 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 19.75 points.

After a dismal August that saw the S&P 500 drop 4.7 percent, Wall Street started September with two consecutive winning sessions on better-than-expected data on manufacturing and housing.

Campbell Soup Co reported higher-than-expected quarterly earnings, helped by cost cuts and sales of V8 juice drinks, even as U.S. soup sales fell.

Walgreen Co said August same-store sales rose 2.1 percent, slightly below the 2.4 percent estimate.

Take-Two Interactive Inc's quarterly profit smashed past expectations, and the video gamemaker raised its forecast, citing strong sales for its Red Dead Redemption title. Its shares jumped 12.3 percent to $9.94 in premarket trade.

Celldex Therapeutics Inc tumbled 30 percent to $3.36 premarket after Pfizer Inc

ended a codevelopment deal on Celldex's lead product, a cancer vaccine. Pfizer added 0.5 percent to $16.48.

On the M&A front, Canada's Goldcorp Inc agreed to buy gold miner Andean Resources Ltd for $3.2 billion, trumping a competing offer from rival Eldorado Gold Corp .

Other data on tap for Friday includes the Institute for Supply Management's services sector report.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; editing by Jeffrey Benkoe)

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