U.S. Stocks Rise Toward Records As Solid Data On The Job Market Overshadows Higher Oil Prices
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose to records on Friday The country’s job market is in better shape more than economists expected.
S&P 500 moves towards top, up 0.7% all time high U.S. employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut last month, a report said. war with Iran is raising fuel costs and uncertainty for everyone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 15 points, or less than 0.1%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq composite was up 1.3%, heading for its own record.
Although hiring slowed from March, it was still nearly double what economists expected. And that helped the S&P 500 cruise for a sixth straight week in what would be its longest winning streak since 2024. The stock market has been on the rise since the end of Marchpartly because war would not mean the worst-case scenario for the global economy and Strait of Hormuz It will reopen to allow oil tankers to carry crude oil from the Persian Gulf.
Whether these hopes are justified or just wishful thinking remains to be determined. US forces opened fire and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday, after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hoped to receive a “serious offer” from Iran after Washington made its final offer to end the war and reopen the strait.
The barrel price of Brent crude rose 1.8% to $101.80 following the latest fire in the war. They are still much more expensive than the around $70 per barrel before the start of the war, but not as high as their value of over $119 during the war.
One of the biggest factors helping support the US stock market despite the uncertainties of war is the strong profits companies are reporting for the start of 2026.
Monster Beverage rose 14.5% after the energy drink maker joined the ranks of companies that beat analysts’ profit and revenue expectations in the latest quarter. It benefited from strong growth outside the United States, with total net sales there accounting for approximately 45% of the total; This is the highest rate ever.
Akamai Technologies jumped further, up 20.4%, after its results beat expectations. It announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed customer for seven years. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company is benefiting from the increase in investments in artificial intelligence technology.
Such insatiable demand for AI helped CoreWeave report revenue in the latest quarter that was more than double the previous year, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. It also gave its estimated revenue range for the current quarter, whose midpoint falls below analysts’ expectations. Shares of the company, which offers customers artificial intelligence computing power via the cloud, fell 13.1 percent.
Indices on stock markets abroad fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.4% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng suffered two major losses, losing 0.9%.
South Korea’s Kospi index was an exception, rising 0.1% to an all-time high.
In the bond market, Treasury yields eased and remained low after a report suggested confidence among U.S. consumers was still near its lowest level since 2022. Consumers told the University of Michigan’s survey they were concerned about both higher gas prices and taxes, although inflation expectations for next year were tempered slightly.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.36% from 4.41% at the end of Thursday and from 4.45% earlier this week.
Low yields could reduce rates mortgages and other types of loans to U.S. households and businesses could also provide a boost to the economy. Low returns also tend to push up the prices of stocks and other types of investments.
But the 10-year Treasury yield remains well above its pre-war level of 3.97%.
