Stocks in New York started profit on Friday after the US government jobs report. Investors on Wall Street also kept an eye on developments surrounding the war in Ukraine. Russia nevertheless stated that it sees progress in talks with Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said talks should continue, and Ukraine shows a greater understanding of the situation in the Crimean peninsula and the eastern Donbas region. On Friday, consultations are underway between the warring parties with video connections.
Figures from the US government showed that jobs increased by 431,000 in March. That was less than the 490,000 jobs economists had expected. Unemployment stood at 3.6 percent, the lowest level in nearly two years. The figures are important because employment plays an essential role in the interest rate policy of the US central bank. Strong job growth could lead to faster rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.
Shortly after opening, the Dow-Jones index was 0.3 percent higher at 34,783 points. The broad S&P 500 climbed 0.3 percent to 4,540 points, and tech gauge Nasdaq rose 0.4 percent to 14,279 points.
Rivian fell 0.7 percent. The electric vehicle manufacturer warned that the war in Ukraine is causing more problems in supply chains and higher material costs.
GameStop was raised more than 10 percent. In addition, the video game seller announced plans for a stock split. A share of GameStop now costs almost $170, and by splitting the share, the company wants to make the pieces more affordable for small investors. GameStop is one of the so-called groups of “meme stocks” that caught the attention last year as small investors competed with large investment funds via internet forums such as Reddit.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, rose slightly. According to the Indian regulator, the payment system in Google’s app store is “unfair and discriminatory” for app developers. Google is also under fire in other countries because of the high fees that the company charges.
Apple lost 0.5 percent. Analysts at JPMorgan took the tech company off their focus list due to the pressure on consumer spending from high inflation.
