NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. stocks turned sharply higher late on Friday as investors bet that a steep drop in oil prices will help shore up consumer spending and ease the cost of doing business.
* Boost from oil's drop helped investors put aside worries sparked earlier by a much worse-than-expected November payrolls report.
* Standout gainers included retailers, banks and technology companies, with the Dow up 1.2 percent, the S&P 500 up 1.6 percent and the Nasdaq up 2 percent, after rising briefly more than 3 percent.
* Oil prices fell $3 to a 4-year low on bleak US jobs data.
(Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Jan Paschal)
