Wall Street closed out the week on a strong note Friday as a better-than-expected April jobs report gave investors the confidence to push past lingering geopolitical concerns. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite both notched new all-time closing highs, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average finished essentially flat as gains in tech and growth names offset weakness in more defensive corners of the market.
What Moved Markets
The S&P 500 (SPI:SP500) climbed 61.82 points, or 0.84%, to close at 7,398.93. The Nasdaq Composite surged 1.71% to finish at 26,247.08. The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a gain of 12.19 points, or 0.02%, settling at 49,609.16.
The main catalyst was the April nonfarm payrolls report, which showed the economy added 115,000 jobs — well above the 65,000 economists had forecast. The unemployment rate held steady at 4.3%. The data eased recession fears that had been simmering amid the ongoing U.S.-Iran military tensions and reinforced the narrative that the labor market remains resilient even as the Federal Reserve holds rates steady.
Tech stocks led the charge, fueled by a string of strong earnings results and fresh AI-related deals that kept investors enthusiastic about the sector’s growth runway. Q1 earnings season has been broadly impressive, with the blended year-over-year growth rate tracking at 15.1% — putting the S&P 500 on pace for a sixth straight quarter of double-digit profit gains.
Notable Movers
Akamai Technologies (AKAM) was the standout performer of the session, soaring roughly 30% for its best single-day gain in over two decades. The content delivery and cloud services company reported mixed Q1 results but raised its full-year revenue guidance and announced a landmark $1.8 billion, seven-year AI infrastructure deal. Cloud infrastructure revenue jumped 40% year over year, and management now expects that segment to grow at least 50% in constant currency for full-year 2026.
Fluence Energy (FLNC) surged 28% after HSBC and Roth Capital both upgraded the battery storage company following better-than-expected fiscal Q2 results. Roth doubled its price target to $26. The company also disclosed master service agreements with two major data center operators, tapping into growing demand for energy storage tied to AI infrastructure buildouts.
MercadoLibre (MELI) dropped roughly 11% despite reporting Q1 revenue of $8.85 billion, a 49% year-over-year increase. Investors were spooked by a 20% decline in operating income as the Latin American e-commerce giant invested heavily in free shipping and logistics expansion, trading near-term margins for long-term growth.
Rackspace Technology (RXT) gained 12.5% after announcing a partnership with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) to build an enterprise AI cloud platform targeting regulated industries and sovereign workloads.
Coinbase (COIN) and Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) saw choppy trading after an AWS data center outage in the US-East-1 availability zone disrupted operations for both platforms, though both recovered and finished modestly higher on the day.
Looking Ahead
Next week brings a critical test for the rally with the April Consumer Price Index report due Tuesday and the Producer Price Index on Wednesday. Economists expect headline CPI to show prices rose 0.6% month over month and 3.7% year over year — numbers that could either reinforce or challenge the Fed’s patient stance on rate cuts. Earnings season continues with reports from Alibaba, Cisco, Applied Materials, JD.com, and Robinhood Markets among the highlights. With the S&P 500 now trading at 20.9 times forward earnings — above both its five- and ten-year averages — the market will need continued earnings strength and cooperative inflation data to justify these record levels.