U.S. stocks rise toward records as solid data on the job market overshadows higher oil prices

Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at PNC Financial Services Group, joins BNN Bloomberg to discuss the outlook on the markets.

U.S. stocks are rising toward records Friday following the latest sign that the nation’s job market is doing better than economists expected.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.9 per cent and was on track to top its all-time high after a report said U.S. employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut last month, even though the war with Iran is raising fuel costs and uncertainty for everyone. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 45 points, or 0.1 per cent, as of 2:20 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.6 per cent higher and heading for its own record.

While hiring slowed from March’s level, it was nevertheless nearly double what economists expected. And it helped keep the S&P 500 on track for a sixth straight winning week, which would be its longest such streak since 2024. The U.S. stock market has blasted higher since late March, in part on hopes that the war will not mean a worst-case scenario for the global economy and that the Strait of Hormuz will reopen to allow oil tankers to deliver crude from the Persian Gulf again.

• S&P 500 market updates here

It’s still to be determined if those hopes are warranted or just wishful. U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers on Friday after exchanging fire with Iranian forces in the Strait of Hormuz overnight. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he hopes to receive “a serious offer” from Iran later in the day after Washington gave its latest proposal to end the war and reopen the strait.

The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil climbed 0.9 per cent to US$100.99 following the latest volleys of fire in the war. It’s still much more expensive than it was before the fighting began, when it was at roughly $70 per barrel, but it’s not as high as its heights above $119 during the war.

One big factor helping to support the U.S. stock market despite the war’s uncertainties is the strong profits that companies have been reporting for the start of 2026.

Monster Beverage jumped 16.7 per cent after the energy drink maker joined the parade of companies topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue for the latest quarter. It benefited from strong growth outside the United States, and total net sales there made up about 45 per cent of its total, the highest percentage ever for it.

Akamai Technologies leaped even more, 26.5 per cent, after its results squeaked past expectations. It announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed client over seven years. The cybersecurity and cloud computing company is benefiting from the surge in investment in artificial-intelligence technology.

Such voracious demand for AI helped CoreWeave report revenue for the latest quarter that was more than double what it was a year earlier, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. It also gave a forecasted range for revenue in the current quarter whose midpoint fell below analysts’ expectations. The stock of the company, which offers AI computing power to customers over the cloud, fell 11.9 per cent.

• Dow Jones updates here

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.3 per cent, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9 per cent for two of the bigger losses.

South Korea’s Kospi was an exception, and it inched up 0.1 per cent to another all-time high.

In the bond market, Treasury yields eased and remained lower after a report suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is still stuck near its lowest level since 2022. Consumers told the survey from the University of Michigan they’re concerned about both high gasoline prices and tariffs, though their expectations for inflation in the coming year softened by a bit.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.36 per cent from 4.41 per cent late Thursday and from 4.45 per cent early this week.

Lower yields can bring down rates for mortgages and other kinds of loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which in turn can give the economy a boost. Lower yields also tend to push upward on prices for stocks and other kinds of investments.

The 10-year Treasury yield, though, remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from just before the war.

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Stan Choe, The Associated Press. AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.