S&P 500, Nasdaq, Dow rally on Apple earnings, jobs report (SP500)

U.S. stocks surged on Friday, breaking a string of declines, as investors cheered Apple’s latest earnings report and welcomed a strong jobs report, which suggested that the economy remained robust despite banking uncertainty and rising interest rates.

The Nasdaq Composite (COMP.IND) closed +2.3%, the S&P 500 (SP500) finished +1.9% and the Dow (DJI) ended +1.7%. For the S&P 500, the upswing ended a four-session losing streak.

Bolstered by tech buying, the Nasdaq led the major averages higher in percentage terms, climbing 269.01 points to close at 12,235.41. The Dow Jones rose 546.64 points to end at 33,674.38 and the S&P 500 advanced 75.03 points to finish at 4,136.25.

All 11 S&P sectors posted gains, led by Info Tech and Energy, which each climbed more than 2.7%. Consumer Discretionary and Financials both rose at least 2%.

“All equity indices rallied today following the jobs report, good news now being just good news. Weak numbers from Apple failed to dissuade anyone from de-risking,” Alex King from Cestrian Capital Research told Seeking Alpha.

“Until we see a clean upside break in the Nasdaq we believe there is short-term risk to the downside which may surprise recent bulls,” King added. “We believe the Russell 2000 and the Dow will lead the way up in the coming days, with the S&P meandering sideways and the Nasdaq correcting some of the post-January gains. We remain bullish for 2023.”

In economic news, fresh government data showed that the economy added 253K jobs in April. That marked a significant acceleration from the reading of 165K in the previous month. The figure also came in above the 180K that economists had predicted. Meanwhile, the unemployment rate dipped to a multi-decade low of 3.4%.

Earnings news played a part in Friday’s trading as well. Apple (AAPL) represented the main headliner, jumping almost 5% after the iPhone maker topped expectations with its quarterly results, despite revenue that fell from last year. The company also announced a $90B stock repurchase plan.

The jobs report encouraged selling in the fixed-income market, as investors moved money from bonds into stocks. This sent Treasury yields higher. The 10-year yield (US10Y) advanced 8 basis points to 3.44% and the more rate-sensitive 2-year yield (US2Y) jumped 18 basis points to 3.91%.

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