The Dow Jones rallied 1.2% to 38,676, the S&P500 gained around the same amount to 5,128 and the Nasdaq Composite soared 2% to 16,156 in Friday's session alone, enabling the three US indices to string together a second week of gains.

They proved once again that 'bad news is good news' when the main issue is once again the prospect of monetary easing by the Fed (as early as September) and not the health of the US economy.

According to the employment report unveiled before the opening, the US economy generated just 175,000 non-farm jobs in April, well below market expectations, which had averaged around 250,000.

The unemployment rate rose by 0.1 points to 3.9%, where economists had hoped for stability, while the labor force participation rate held steady at 62.7%, and average hourly earnings rose at an annual rate of 3.9%.

Meanwhile, while the S&P Global composite PMI was revised up to 51.3 for last month, the ISM services index dipped to 49.4, falling back into contraction territory for the first time since late 2022.

Bond markets applauded the day's weaker-than-expected macroeconomic data, with yields easing by seven basis points on both the '10-yr' to 4.501% and the '2-yr' to 4.806%.

The session was also marked by the outperformance of Apple shares (+6%), the technology firm having announced on Thursday evening, on the sidelines of its quarterly results, the most titanic share buyback plan in the history of capitalism ($110 billion).

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