Stocks Push to Fresh Records as Jobs Data and Tech Momentum Keep the Rally Alive

Reuters, CNBC, AP, the Wall Street Journal, Market Watch, Investor’s Business Daily contributed to this report.

Wall Street had another strong day Friday.

The S&P 500 climbed 0.8% and the Nasdaq jumped 1.4%, with both indexes setting fresh intraday records. The Dow mostly sat this one out, hovering around flat. Still, the broader tone stayed upbeat as investors piled into tech and digested a stronger-than-expected April jobs report.

The labor market gave traders a reason to keep buying. US payrolls rose by 115,000 last month, well above the 55,000 economists had expected. Unemployment held steady at 4.3%. Not flashy, but solid enough to reassure investors that the economy still has some forward motion.

Tech kept doing the heavy lifting. The Nasdaq is now on pace for a 4% weekly gain, while the S&P 500 is tracking toward its sixth straight winning week. The Dow, by contrast, is barely up for the week. That kind of split tells the story pretty well: this rally still has a tech engine under the hood.

Oil added a little tension, but not enough to knock the market off course. Crude edged higher after the US and Iran traded fire in the Strait of Hormuz, with each side blaming the other. West Texas Intermediate was around $95 a barrel, still elevated, still a source of nerves.

President Donald Trump tried to calm the mood late Thursday, saying the ceasefire remains intact and brushing off the strikes as “just a love tap.” Investors are still waiting to see how Iran responds to the latest US peace proposal, but so far the market is treating the whole thing as a risk, not a full-blown setback.

That said, not everyone is convinced this kind of run can keep going.

Some investors worry the market is getting too comfortable with prices that already assume a lot of good news – especially around AI spending. That trade has been powerful. It has helped lift chip names and memory stocks hard this week, with names like Micron and Sandisk moving sharply higher.

The bigger question is whether the market is being too optimistic about everything else that is going on around it. Higher oil, a fragile Middle East backdrop, and a consumer that is already under pressure could all start to matter more if the conflict drags on.

For now, though, traders are sticking with what has been working: strong earnings, steady hiring, and the AI boom.