S&P 500 rises to record close Friday and posts strongest week since April: Live updates

The S&P 500 rose on Friday as traders interpreted an unexpected loss of jobs in July as meaning the Federal Reserve won't need to raise interest rates soon and can leave monetary policy on hold for now.

The broad market index advanced 0.62% for a record close of 7,757.64, while the Nasdaq Composite outperformed, climbing 1.3% to 26,690.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 151.83 points, or 0.28%, to end at 54,036.93.

Stocks posted a second straight week of gains. The S&P 500 — which closed above 7,700 for the first time ever earlier this week — advanced 3.6% in the period. The Nasdaq saw a gain of 5.2%, thanks to a bounce-back in chip stocks. The iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) ended the week up more than 7%. The Dow, on the other hand, gained nearly 3% during the week. All three indexes notched their best weekly performances since April.

July's nonfarm payrolls report showed a drop of 23,000 jobs, while economists polled by Dow Jones had forecast a gain of 83,000. The unemployment rate fell to 4.1% as the labor force participation rate fell to its lowest level in more than five years. Economists had expected it to remain unchanged at 4.2%.

A majority of fed funds futures traders now expect that the central bank will hold its benchmark lending rate at the current 3.50% to 3.75% at the next policy meeting in September, per the CME FedWatch tool. Just a day ago, traders were pricing in a 55% chance of a quarter-point hike.

"For the job market this is a number that's not booming and may actually be breaking, but for the markets the two biggest areas of concern were yields and inflation," Saira Malik, Nuveen chief investment officer, said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."Â "This lower number helps not reinforce the Fed's narrative that they need to raise interest rates."

Software stocks helped lead the market higher Friday as the latest round of earnings dispelled fears that artificial intelligence would disrupt the industry. Cloudflare popped more than 5% after the cloud cybersecurity company issued a solid full-year and current-quarter outlook. Shares of Atlassian jumped 35% after the company's fourth-quarter adjusted earnings and revenue surpassed expectations and issued upbeat guidance.

Airbnb shares also rallied 17% after the vacation rental company posted a beat on the top and bottom lines.

Oil prices, meanwhile, were slightly higher as investors awaited a potential deal from the U.S. and Iran to reopen the Strait of Hormuz. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had told CNBC earlier in the week that the two sides could reach a deal soon.

West Texas Intermediate futures for September delivery were up 1.15%, settling at $78.18 per barrel, while Brent crude, the international benchmark, climbed 1.29% to settle at $83.55.

"The conclusion is that a resolution will be forthcoming in the not too distant future, and if those conditions change, then you're going to see angst crawl back into the market," said Terry Sandven, U.S. Bank Asset Management's chief equity strategist. "But at present, the wall of worry is crumbling."

The S&P 500 rose to a new record close on Friday.

The broad-based index gained 0.62% to end the day at 7,757.64. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 1.3% to reach 26,690.62, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 151.83 points, or 0.28%, to settle at 54,036.93.

Space Exploration Technologies rose 12% on Friday, putting itself on pace to end its first week in the green in awhile.

Shares of the Elon Musk-owned company were last up almost 19% week to date due to growing investor optimism toward SpaceX's fundamentals. By contrast, the stock has ended each of the last four weeks in the red.

SpaceX's rally this week was fueled, in part, by Argus raising its rating on the space technology name to buy from hold. The investment firm also reiterated its $160 target on shares, which suggests 39% upside from Thursday's close.Â

Additionally, it appears that concerns over a potential SpaceX sell-off tied to a spate of upcoming share unlocks have already been priced into the stock, with shares falling on those fears earlier in the week.

Negotiators from Iran are currently awaiting final approvals from the Supreme National Security Council regarding a deal with the U.S. and Oman to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, Axios reported Friday, citing a diplomat from a mediating country.

"We expect this approval soon," the diplomat told the outlet.

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had said Tuesday that the U.S. and Iran could soon reach a deal to open the passageway.

On Thursday, Iranian state media reported about the terms of a draft plan that would see the U.S. and Israeli ships blocked from moving through the strait. A U.S. official later told CNBC that "any temporary routes will be without any impediments."

Shares of chipmaker Nvidia are up more than 10% on the week, and up more than 1% in intraday trading on Friday.

The leader in GPU manufacturing got a major boost this week from SpaceX CEO Elon Musk, who said that Nvidia would be SpaceX's "exclusive" partner for its ongoing AI buildout.

"We've decided to build exclusively on Nvidia because we think the Vera Rubin architecture is the best architecture," Musk said on Aug. 4 during the company's first earnings call after going public.

Nvidia's Vera Rubin system combines CPUs designed for data movement and workload orchestration with GPUs built for query-response processing.

Here are some of the companies making headlines in midday trading:

Oil stocks have followed crude prices lower this week.

The S&P 500 Energy sector is down more than 2%. The shares of oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil have lost nearly 5% and more than 1%, respectively. Independent producers EOG Resources and Diamondback have shed more than 8% and about 7%.

U.S. crude oil futures are down more than 7% this week as the Trump administration has teased a possible agreement with Iran to increase traffic in the Strait of Hormuz. No deal has been announced yet.

While the unemployment rate dropped to 4.1% in the latest jobs report, the July figures overall don't paint the labor market in a positive light, according to Jan Hatzius, chief economist at Goldman Sachs.

In July, nonfarm payrolls unexpectedly saw a fall of 23,000, far below the gain of 83,000 that economists polled by Dow Jones had expected. June's figure was also downwardly revised to a gain of 20,000.

"The payroll numbers came in quite far below expectations, especially if you take the revisions into account," Hatzius said on CNBC's "Squawk on the Street." "And if I look at our composite measure of underlying job growth, that was running at a little over 70,000 before this report a month ago. It's now running at 5,000."

The chief economist also noted that the decline in the unemployment rate was primarily due to a "big" drop in labor force participation.

"If you take the whole report together, it's weaker," he said.

However, Hatzius believes that the upcoming inflation figures set to be released next week hold more importance, as they could "tell us whether the very good June inflation numbers were a one-off or maybe the start of a softer trend," he added.

Ultimately, September remains an "open question," he said, but he thinks the inflation data is going to be "benign enough" that the Fed won't make any moves on interest rates.

Boeing is on track for its best week since early April due to a combination of catalysts.

Shares of the aircraft maker are up around 7% week to date. That marks its best weekly performance since the four-day period ended April 2, when shares rose 9.3%.

On Monday, Boeing secured approval from the Federal Aviation Administration for its 737 Max 7 to fly after years of delays, boosting its shares.

The stock has also benefited from a recent pullback in oil prices. Futures for international benchmark Brent crude for October delivery have fallen more than 7% this week.

Earlier this week, long-time Boeing bear BNP Paribas also double upgraded the plane manufacturer to outperform from underperform, which encouraged investors.

After Airbnb beat analysts' estimates and raised guidance on its full-year revenue and margin, Airbnb hit a four-year high on Friday.Â

CEO Brian Chesky told CNBC AI is "the best thing to have happened to Airbnb" and what drove the strong performance. Chesky added that 45% of guests who interact with an AI agent never need to speak with a human.Â

The CEO also noted Its first-time bookers are growing at their fastest pace in four years. Shares were up nearly 16% Friday morning.

First Solar shares are up about 5% after President Donald Trump slapped tariffs on polysilicon products imported from China.

Polysilicon is a key input for manufacturing solar panels. The Invesco Solar Exchange Traded Fund was also up more than 1%.

Former Dallas Fed Chair Richard Fisher told CNBC's "Squawk Box" he was not disappointed in July's job report numbers.Â

"Well, actually, I think the labor situation is better than I expected than many people expected. We're actually holding up fairly well but again, look at the rate of increase of wages. It's been dampening, and I think that will affect consumer behavior. In addition to having the kind of inflationary pressure that consumers are feeling, so I'm not that disappointed in these numbers," Fisher said.

Fisher added he is waiting on inflation data and said he would not react to just July's job report. He added he is not in favor of raising rates.Â

"I do think the committee is leaning in a hawkish direction, either for September or the meeting after that," Fisher said.Â

The Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that nonfarm payrolls dropped 23,000 for July while Dow Jones expected a gain of 83,000.Â

Stocks began Friday's session in positive territory.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% just after the opening bell, while the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 70 points, or 0.1%.

July nonfarm payrolls contracted by 23,000 jobs, far below the 83,000-job addition that Wall Street had expected before the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics report.

The unemployment rate came in at 4.1% against economists' estimate going into the number for an unchanged rate of 4.2%.

The percentage of the population working or looking to work, the so-called labor force participation rate, dipped to 61.4% in July from 61.5% in June.

Job growth isn't expected to show much improvement in July, with payrolls and the unemployment rate likely holding relatively steady and economists looking through the headline numbers for further clues about labor market health.

Nonfarm payrolls are expected to post a gain of just 83,000, with the unemployment rate unchanged at 4.2%. That would come off a slow June, which saw an increase of just 57,000 jobs.

Outside the headline numbers will come important indicators about the general strength in the job market — specifically, participation in the labor force, wage growth and the sectors that are driving the labor market now.

All that will paint an important picture for Federal Reserve officials, who lately have been expressing both a great deal of confidence in the labor market and worry enough about inflation to float the possibility of interest rate hikes sometime soon.

Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:

Precious metals rallied Friday, with gold and silver on track for their strongest weekly gains in months.

December gold futures climbed as high as $4,380.20 an ounce, the highest since June 17. Gold is up 6.6% this week, putting it on pace for its best weekly performance since Jan. 23.

Silver has posted an even sharper advance. September futures rose as high as $64.96 an ounce, the highest since June 23, and are up 11.84% for the week. That would mark silver's biggest weekly gain since Feb. 27.

More mom and pop investors are optimistic about the outlook for stocks over the coming six months, but the number is still below the historic average for the third time in four weeks, according to the latest weekly poll by the American Association of Individual Investors.

Bulls rose to 37% from 31%, against an historic average of 37.5%. The percentage of those describing themselves as bearish fell to 38% from 42.2% last week, above the historic average of 31.5% for a sixth straight month (26 weeks). Investors who are neutral dropped to 25% from 26.9%, the 22nd time in 23 weeks that such balanced views were below their historic average of 31.0%.

Main Street investors aren't clamoring for lower interest rates, according to a special question AAII asked this week. More than half, or 55.1%, said last week's move by the Federal Reserve to keep overnight lending rates where they are was the right move. Almost a third, or 30.6%, said the Fed should have raised interest rates.

More people were unsure or had no opinion, 8.7%, than thought rates should have been cut, only 5.6%.

Spot silver rose 5% on Friday, extending a six-week high to $64.57 an ounce and on track for its best weekly performance since February.Â

Silver is tracking gold higher this week after lower oil prices and soft hiring data boosted the prospects for precious metals.

Traders are looking ahead to the release of the July jobs report on Friday, which will shed some light on the Fed's interest rate path.

One week after the joint U.S.-Japan intervention to support the country's embattled yen, an initial rally appears to be waning as the currency drifts lower.Â

The coordinated involvement from the Treasury and BoJ had initially lifted the yen as high as 155 to the dollar, down from just above 163 beforehand.Â

But since then, it has wavered, giving up almost half of those gains to settle around 158.50 to the dollar, seven days after the move was announced on July 31.Â

Japan's Nikkei 225 closed 0.12% lower at 65,606.71, while South Korea's Kospi fell 0.60% to 6,258.77 in choppy trade.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 ended flat at 9,263.60.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index was up 0.44% as of its last hour of trade, while mainland China's CSI 300 closed 0.93% higher at 4,694.44. Market sentiment was supported by China’s exports growth in July that beat analysts' estimates.

European stock markets opened the final trading day of the week in positive territory, with the Stoxx 600 benchmark up 0.24% shortly after 8:15 a.m. in London (3:15 a.m. E.T.).

The continent's major bourses all traded higher, with Germany's DAX up 0.41% in Frankfurt, while in London, the U.K. FTSE 100 added 0.22%. The Italian FTSE MIB rose 0.1% in Milan, and in Paris, France's CAC 40 was last seen almost 0.1% higher.

A majority of regional sector also notched gains in early dealmaking, with European healthcare stocks leading the way, up 1.3%. Technology companies rose more than 1%.

On the downside, both travel and leisure stocks and autos and parts names both retreated about 0.5%.

Eutelsat, Europe's challenger to Elon Musk's Starlink, posted better-than-expected revenue figures on Friday but is still operating at a loss.Â

The French firm, which produces Low Earth Orbit (LEO) ​connectivity, said the growth in its LEO business is expected to offset declines in its Geostationary Earth Orbit business.

Eutelsat posted revenues of 1.24 billion euros ($1.4 billion) in the year ended in June, which is above the 1.2-billion-euro average from analysts polled by the company. However, Eutelsat was still running an operating loss of over 220 million euros and a net loss of 457 million euros.

Gold is on track for its best week since January, after lower oil prices boosted the prospects for the yellow metal.

Spot gold was last seen trading 0.7% higher at $4,271.30 per ounce, while gold futures were last seen trading 0.75% higher at $4,331.90 per ounce.

This week, gold defied the bearish case to consolidate above the important $4,000 per ounce level. Traders are looking ahead to the release of the July jobs report on Friday, which will indicate the direction for interest rates.

Shares of Kirin Holdings, a Japanese beer and beverages firm, climbed 4% on Friday after it agreed to acquire Canadian supplements maker Jamieson Wellness.

In a separate statement, Jamieson Wellness said Kirin would acquire all of its issued and outstanding common shares for $45.75 Canadian dollars ($32.64) per share in cash, valuing the company at approximately C$2.0 billion on a fully diluted equity basis and C$2.5 billion on an enterprise value basis.

The deal marks Kirin's latest push to expand its health supplements business, following its acquisitions of Japanese supplements maker FANCL in 2024 and Australia's Blackmores in 2023.

China's exports rose more than expected in July, though growth eased from June's blistering pace, with global demand for high-tech components helping absorb the country's goods.

Exports grew 23.9% in U.S. dollar terms in July from a year earlier, official customs data showed Friday, topping Reuters-polled analysts' forecast for a 22.2% growth. That slowed from June's 27% surge, which was the fastest pace since October 2021.

Imports rose 27.5% last month, just shy of Reuters estimates of 27.9% in a Reuters poll, slowing from June's 36% jump — the quickest in five years.

The trade surplus came in at $112.5 billion, exceeding analysts' estimates of about $107 billion, while narrowing from $125.6 billion in June, customs data showed.

Chinese exporters had also been racing goods onto U.S.-bound ships ahead of an anticipated increase in tariffs. Washington applied a new 12.5% levy on Chinese products in late July, replacing a temporary 10% rate that had lapsed.

Oil rose Friday amid worries over supply disruptions after Iran published a restrictive draft plan for the Strait of Hormuz.

Futures for international benchmark Brent crude for October delivery gained 1.25% to $83.52 a barrel. U.S. West Texas Intermediate futures for September advanced 1.10% at $78.14 per barrel.

According to the apparent draft plan published by Iran, the country would ban U.S. and Israeli ships from transiting the Strait. Until compensation is paid, other nations that have harmed Iran would not be allowed to transit, according to the draft.

Conflicting accounts of bilateral engagement are muddying the progress of a deal to open the Hormuz strait. While U.S. President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office that the Iran will end "pretty soon," Tehran accused him of staging "theater diplomacy."

Shares of South Korean solar companies rose in early trading Friday after the White House imposed a 15% tariff, price floors and minimum import prices on polysilicon products and derivatives.

The measures could provide price support for non-Chinese suppliers, Hevin Cho, analyst at Kyobo Securities said.Â

Hanwha Solutions surged 10% and OCI Holdings gained 4%.

Polysilicon produced by OCI Holdings' Malaysian subsidiary is classified as high-purity silicon containing at least 99.99% silicon by weight under tariff classification 2804.61 and is therefore exempt from the 15% tariff, Cho said.

Hanwha Solutions also manufactures ingots, wafers and solar cells in the United States, leaving it relatively less exposed to the new measures, she added.

China accounted for 93.2% of global polysilicon production in 2024.

Mainland China and Hong Kong stocks were mixed, as investors await China trade data due later in the day.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index fell 0.35%, while mainland China's CSI 300 was 0.28% higher.

The declines in Hang Seng were led by healthcare as well as education services sectors, down 0.55% and 0.54%, respectively.

Asia-Pacific markets traded broadly higher early Friday, with focus on China trade data due later in the day.

Japan's Nikkei 225 added over 0.20% while the Topix rose 0.29%.

The Kospi gained 0.89% at open, while the small-cap Kosdaq 0.6%.

Australia's benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.45% lower.

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open mixed on Friday, on higher oil prices after Iran published a restrictive draft plan for the Strait of Hormuz.

Japan's Nikkei 225 was poised to decline slightly, with the Chicago futures contract at 65,670 and its Osaka counterpart last trading at 65,530, compared with the index's previous close of 65,683.26.

Hong Kong Hang Seng index futures were last at 25,542, compared with the index's close of 25,530.28.

Australia's S&P/ASX 200 futures last traded at 9,190, while the index closed at 9,271.60.

According to the apparent draft plan published by Iran, the country would ban U.S. and Israeli ships from transiting the strait. Until compensation is paid, other nations that have harmed Iran would not be allowed to transit, according to the draft.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump said in the Oval Office in a reference to Iran that he thinks the war in Iran will end "pretty soon."

As of Thursday's close, stocks were on pace for a second straight week of gains. Here are where the major averages stand:

Check out the companies making headlines after hours:

Stock futures opened little changed Thursday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures fell by 19 points, or 0.04%. S&P 500 futures dipped 0.04%, while Nasdaq 100 futures climbed 0.1%.