(Photo by ANGELA WEISS/AFP via Getty Images)
- US stocks jumped on Friday as tech behemoth Apple and regional bank stocks climbed.
- The S&P 500 was able to close higher after four days of declines.
- Treasury yields soared after the US economy added 253,000 jobs in April, much more than anticipated.
US stocks staged a rally Friday fronted by Apple and regional bank shares, as investors brushed aside rising bond yields sparked by an April jobs report that crushed expectations.
The S&P 500 finished higher after four consecutive losses, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average piled on more than 500 points. Headlining those moves was Apple, whose shares climbed on a dividend increase, a $90 billion share-buyback plan, and rising iPhone sales that helped the company beat quarterly earnings expectations. Apple is the most heavily weighted stock on the S&P 500.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Friday:
- S&P 500: 4,136.37, up 1.85%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 33,674.31, up 1.65% (546.57 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 12,235.41, up 2.25%
Equities also found strength from a jump in regional bank shares, including PacWest and Western Alliance after sharp selloffs during the week. One bank industry group asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to stop short-seller attacks on their stocks driven by social-media speculation.
Stocks powered through a surge in Treasury yields. Yields ran up as the bond market sold off following the stronger-than-expected US jobs report for April. Investors were tempering expectations for the Fed to start cutting interest rates sooner than later in 2023. The 2-year note yield, reflecting expectations for Fed moves, climbed nearly 20 basis points to 3.91%.
Nonfarm payroll employment of 253,000 trounced the 180,000 estimate. The unemployment rate fell to 3.4%.
"The April jobs report is indisputably hawkish and puts the focus back on the Fed – especially if inflation data also beat next week. But the big revisions to the prior readings suggest the jobs market is perhaps not as strong as the latest data makes it out to be," Fawad Razaqzada, market analyst at City Index, wrote in a Friday note.
While stocks rose Friday, Wall Street's major indexes still fell on a weekly basis.
Here's what else is happening today:
- Short sellers brought in $400 million in a single day from the selloff in regional banks.
- Biggest banks will reportedly pay to refill the FDIC's deposit insurance fund.
- The dollar's slump will continue as the Fed prepares to pause rate hikes, UBS said.
- The Fed just brought in its final interest-rate hike, said billionaire bond investor Jeff Gundlach.
- De-dollarization fears are overblown, but rising debt is among top threats to the greenback, Bank of America says.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude climbed 4% to $71.45 per barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, rose 3.7% to $73.78.
- Gold fell 1.5% to $2,025.60 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield rose 8 basis points to 3.43%.
- Bitcoin picked up 2.2% to $29,483.50.