All three major US stock indexes were up in late-morning trading Friday following a better-than-expected jobs report.
Nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000 in April, above the Bloomberg survey consensus estimate of 65,000, the Bureau of Labor Statistics said Friday. March payrolls were revised up to a 185,000-job gain, while February payrolls were revised down to a 156,000-job decrease, the BLS said. The unemployment rate remained at 4.3% in April, as expected, while the labor force participation rate fell to 61.8% from 61.9% in March, the agency said.
In company news, Nvidia (NVDA) chips are at the center of a suspected $2.5 billion smuggling scheme involving Super Micro Computer (SMCI) servers diverted to China through Bangkok-based OBON, Bloomberg reported Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Alibaba (BABA) is among the alleged end customers of the scheme, the report said. In a March indictment, US prosecutors outlined how Super Micro worked with a Southeast Asian company identified by sources as OBON to bypass trade restrictions, the report said. Nvidia shares were up 2.1% and Super Micro shares were up 4.5%, while Alibaba shares were marginally down.
Hedge fund TCI cut its stake in Microsoft (MSFT) from 10% of its portfolio, or $8 billion, at the end of last year to 1% at the end of March, the Financial Times reported Friday, citing an investor letter it reviewed. Microsoft shares were down 1.1%.
CoreWeave (CRWV) reported a Q1 net loss late Thursday of $1.40 per diluted share, narrowing from a loss of $1.49 a year earlier but below the FactSet consensus estimate of a loss of $1.18. First-quarter revenue was $2.08 billion, up from $982 million a year ago and above the FactSet consensus of $1.97 billion. CoreWeave shares were down 13%.
Price: $216.03, Change: $+4.53, Percent Change: +2.14%