Stocks gained ground in early trading Friday after the release of closely watched employment data as the market looks to cap off a volatile week of trading on a high note.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.2% about 30 minutes after the opening bell, while the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4% and 0.6%, respectively. Stocks fell sharply Thursday—putting major indexes on pace for their worst week of 2025—amid ongoing uncertainty about President Trump’s tariff policies and broader concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.
The February jobs report from the Labor Department showed that U.S. employers added slightly fewer jobs than economists had anticipated while the unemployment rate inched up to 4.1%. While weaker than expected, the numbers didn’t indicate a a significant deterioration in labor conditions that some investors may have feared. Investors are watching data closely as they look for indications that the economy remains on sound footing and for information that could affect the Federal Reserve’s decision-making on interest rates
The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which tends to fall when concerns about the economy rise, was at 4.26% this morning, down from 4.28% at yesterday’s close. The yield, which affects borrowing costs on all sorts of loans, notably mortgages, fell as low as 4.11% earlier this week, its lowest level since October.
Shares of chipmaking giant Broadcom (AVGO) were up 6% after reporting better-than-expected quarterly results fueled by booming AI-related demand. The stock fell more than 6% yesterday amid a broader sell-off in semiconductor stocks as the AI trade continued to falter. AI chipmaker Nvidia (NVDA) was up 2% this morning after falling more than 5% yesterday.
Other mega-cap technology stocks were mostly higher. Apple (AAPL), Alphabet (GOOG), Amazon (AMZN), Meta Platforms (META) and Tesla (TSLA) gained ground, while Microsoft (MSFT) was down about 1%
Among other noteworthy gainers, Walgreens Boots Alliance (WBA) shares were up 7.5% after the drugstore chain announced late Thursday it agreed to be acquired by private equity firm Sycamore Partners in a $10 billion deal. Gap (GAP) shares soared 15% after a better-than-expected quarterly report.
Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) shares led S&P 500 decliners, plunging 15%, after the storage and server maker issued a disappointing outlook, while Costco (COST) was down 5% after the membership-based retailer’s earnings came in below Wall Street expectations,
Bitcoin was trading at $90,900 recently, up from an overnight low of $84,700. The digital currency fell last night after an executive order from President Trump to create a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve fell short of the expectations of some investors.
Gold futures were little-changed at around $2,925 an ounce, while West Texas Intermediate futures, the U.S. crude oil benchmark, rose 2% to $67.75. The price of oil touched its lowest level since late 2021 earlier this week amid concerns about slowing economic growth.
