Financial Markets                      05/08 09:46

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- 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 0.7% 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 75 points, or 0.2%, as of 
10:15 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1.2% higher and heading 
for its own record.

   While hiring slowed from March's level, it was nevertheless nearly double 
what economists expected. And it kept 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.

   It's still to be determined if those hopes are warranted or just wishful. 
The United Arab Emirates said Friday that it responded to another Iranian 
missile barrage, hours after the United States said it traded fire with Iranian 
forces in the Strait of Hormuz, in the latest blows to a shaky month-old 
ceasefire.

   But economists said the latest jobs data was encouraging, particularly given 
that it followed a stronger-than-expected report for March. That stretch of 
time saw the price for a barrel of Brent crude oil spike from roughly $70 in 
late February to as high as $119 as the fighting and closure of the Strait of 
Hormuz kept oil tankers pent up in the Persian Gulf.

   On Friday, Brent rose 0.6% to $100.65 per barrel after drifting between 
small gains and losses earlier in the morning.

   Another 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 13.2% 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% of its total, the highest percentage 
ever for it.

   Akamai Technologies leaped even more, 18.2%, 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 8.9%.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes fell across much of Europe and Asia. 
Germany's DAX lost 0.8%, and Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.9% for two of the 
bigger losses.

   South Korea's Kospi was an exception, and it inched up 0.1% 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 4.35% from 4.41% late Thursday and 
from 4.45% 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% level from 
just before the war.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.

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