Wall Street pushed higher Friday as a strong jobs report helped investors look past higher oil prices tied to renewed fighting in the Strait of Hormuz. The S&P 500 climbed to another record high after data showed employers added 115,000 more jobs than they cut in the prior month, even though the war raised fuel costs and market uncertainty.
The stock market’s move came as hiring slowed from March’s level but still ran at nearly double what economists expected. That labor-market strength helped the S&P 500 close out a sixth straight winning week, its longest such streak since 2024, continuing a broader rally that has pushed U.S. shares to levels not seen before since late March.
Oil prices moved higher during the session after U.S. forces fired on and disabled two Iranian oil tankers, after exchanging fire with Iranian forces overnight in the Strait of Hormuz. The report said the flare-up added to doubts about a ceasefire the United States has insisted has still been in effect since about a month earlier.
Brent crude rose 1.2% to settle at $101.29 a barrel. The report noted that was below Brent’s heights above $119 during the war but still well above roughly $70 per barrel in late February, before fighting began.
Company results also supported equities, with several large moves tied to earnings and corporate updates. Monster Beverage jumped 13.6% after it joined a wave of companies topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue, with the report saying growth outside the United States drove total net sales from there to about 45% of its total, the highest percentage ever for the company.
Akamai Technologies surged 26.6% after its results “squeaked past” expectations, and the company also announced a $1.8 billion deal to provide cloud infrastructure services to an unnamed client over seven years. The report said demand for artificial-intelligence technology has helped the company benefit from increased investment.
CoreWeave gained and then dropped on its own numbers, as the report said voracious demand for AI helped it report revenue for the latest quarter more than double its year-ago level, but its net loss was worse than analysts expected. The company also gave a forecasted revenue range for the current quarter, with the midpoint falling below analysts’ expectations, and its shares fell 11.4%.
By the close, the report said the S&P 500 rose 61.82 points to 7,398.93, the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 12.19 points to 49,609.16, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 440.88 points to 26,247.08.
Markets abroad were mixed, with indexes falling across much of Europe and Asia. Germany’s DAX lost 1.3% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 0.9%, while South Korea’s Kospi edged up 0.1% to another all-time high.
In bonds, Treasury yields eased, with the report citing a preliminary University of Michigan survey suggesting consumer sentiment remained near its lowest level since 2022. The report said consumers expressed concern about high gasoline prices and tariffs, but expectations for inflation over the coming year softened somewhat, and the 10-year Treasury yield fell to 4.36% from 4.41% late Thursday.
Lower yields can pull down rates for mortgages and other loans and support the economy, the report said. Even so, it noted the 10-year Treasury yield remained well above its 3.97% level just before the war began.