Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The stock market finished a winning week on a high note. The S&P 500 logged its ninth-straight gain, rising 1.5% despite earnings-related decline in Apple (AAPL 205.35, -7.97, -3.7%) and Amazon (AMZN 189.98, -0.22, -0.1%). The Nasdaq Composite was more than 250 points above yesterday's close and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.4%.

The positive bias was driven by momentum after a big run of late, along with optimism around the trade with China after an acknowledgement that China may be open to talks with the U.S.

Market participants were also feeling better about the economic situation after a solid jobs report. There was a 177,000 increase in nonfarm payrolls and the unemployment rate was steady at 4.2%.

There was also some technical moves in play after the S&P 500 closed above its 50-day moving average (5,582) yesterday.

The broad advance led all 11 S&P 500 sectors to close higher. The communication services sector led the pack, boosted by its mega cap components. The heavily-weighted financial sector was the next best performer, jumping 2.2%.

Treasuries settled the session with solid losses. The 10-yr yield rose nine basis points to 4.32% and the 2-yr yield rose 14 basis points to 3.84%.

Reviewing today's economic data:

• April Nonfarm Payrolls 177K (Briefing.com consensus 130K); Prior was revised to 185K from 228K, April Nonfarm Private Payrolls 167K (Briefing.com consensus 125K); Prior was revised to 170K from 209K, April Avg. Hourly Earnings 0.2% (Briefing.com consensus 0.3%); Prior 0.3%, April Unemployment Rate 4.2% (Briefing.com consensus 4.2%); Prior 4.2%, April Average Workweek 34.3 (Briefing.com consensus 34.2); Prior was revised to 34.3 from 34.2
  • The key takeaway from the report is that the employment situation in April remained relatively solid in spite of the volatility associated with the tariff actions and many castigations that they will hurt the economy. It is possible that will prove to be the case, but looking back at April, that wasn't the case in large part for the labor market.
• March Factory Orders 4.3% (Briefing.com consensus 4.1%); Prior was revised to 0.5% from 0.6%
  • The key takeaway from the report is that the headline number masks a languid situation for factory orders in March, which were negative when the transportation component is removed.

Looking ahead to next week, market participants receive the following data on Monday: April ISM Services (prior 50.8%) at 10:00 ET.