U.S. stocks traded higher this morning, with the Nasdaq Composite gaining more than 200 points on Friday.

Following the market opening Friday, the Dow traded up 0.20% to 49,695.04 while the NASDAQ gained 0.82% to 26,016.59. The S&P 500 also rose, gaining, 0.50% to 7,373.60.

Leading and Lagging Sectors

Information technology shares jumped by 1.5% on Friday.

In trading on Friday, energy stocks fell by 0.7%.

Top Headline

U.S. nonfarm payrolls defied expectations in April, with total employment edging up by 115,000 jobs to comfortably beat the FactSet consensus estimate of a 65,000 rise. Despite the stronger-than-expected job growth, the unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%.

On the inflation front, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls rose by 6 cents, or 0.2%, to $37.41, bringing the annual wage increase to 3.6%.

Equities Trading UP
         

• Phoenix Asia Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:PHOE) shares shot up 128% to $43.50. The company recently announced a $1 billion stock acquisition agreement to acquire clinical-stage pharmaceutical firm ACEA Pharma Inc., marking a dramatic pivot from its construction roots into oncology and autoimmune drug development.
• Shares of Innodata Inc (NASDAQ:INOD) got a boost, surging 91% to $87.10 after the company reported better-than-expected first-quarter financial results and issued FY26 sales guidance above estimates.
• Antelope Enterprise Holdings Ltd (NASDAQ:AEHL) shares were also up, gaining 85% to $0.94. Antelope Enterprise announced $190,000 realized gain from “Genius Plan” for managing Bitcoin treasury reserves and announced $95,000 share buyback effective June 6.

Equities Trading DOWN

• Artivion, Inc. (NYSE:AORT) shares dropped 33% to $23.68 after the company reported first-quarter financial results and cut its FY26 sales guidance with its midpoint below estimates.
• Shares of AIM ImmunoTech Inc. (NYSE:AIM) were down 34% to $0.3671. AIM ImmunoTech announced exercise of warrants for approximately $4.2 million in gross proceeds.
• Kodiak AI, Inc. (NASDAQ:KDK) was down, falling 33% to $6.10 after the company reported first-quarter financial results. The company announced a $100 million common stock and warrant private placement.

Commodities

In commodity news, oil traded down 0.3% to $94.50 while gold traded up 0.8% at $4,750.60.

Silver traded up 2.1% to $81.885 on Friday, while copper rose 1.9% to $6.2930.

Euro zone

European shares were lower today. The eurozone's STOXX 600 declined 0.4%, while Spain's IBEX 35 Index fell 0.5%. London's FTSE 100 fell 0.1%, Germany's DAX fell 0.9%, while France's CAC 40 declined 0.7%.

Asia Pacific Markets

Asian markets closed lower on Friday, with Japan's Nikkei 225 falling 0.19%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index declining 0.87%, China's Shanghai Composite falling 0.003% and India's BSE Sensex falling 0.66%

Economics

• U.S. nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 jobs to comfortably beat the FactSet consensus estimate of a 65,000 rise.
• The unemployment rate remained unchanged at 4.3%.

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