As if it mattered amid the turmoil in the Middle East and the price of gas in the U.S. and Europe, Wall Street will briefly turn its attention to the regularly-overstated and ultimately revised lower Non-farm Payroll report issued by the Bureau of Labor Statistics for April.
As such, at 8:30 am ET, the BLS snet forth, in part, the news:
Total nonfarm payroll employment edged up by 115,000 in April, and the unemployment rate was unchanged at 4.3 percent, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics reported today. Job gains occurred in health care, transportation and warehousing, and retail trade. Federal government employment continued to decline.
and...
The change in total nonfarm payroll employment for February was revised down by 23,000, from -133,000 to -156,000, and the change for March was revised up by 7,000, from +178,000 to +185,000. With these revisions, employment in February and March combined is 16,000 lower than previously reported.
Just dandy.
Stock futures, which were already geared up in a positive ramp, added more upside. Just before 9:00 am ET, Dow futures were ahead by 240 points, NASDAQ futures gained 245, and S&P futures added 45 points.
Likewise, precious metals were bid, with gold as high as $4,723.00 and silver arcing above $81 per ounce.
Meanwhile, the fog of war remained cloudy and thick with rhetoric as hostilities between the U.S. and Iran escalated to a near boiling point. Iran seized an oil tanker in the Gulf of Oman. Three U.S. destroyers transited out of the Strait of Hormuz under heavy fire from Iranian defenses. According to President Trump, none of the U.S. ships suffered damage, retaliating against Iranian launch sites in the region.
Iran has charged the U.S. with violating the ceasefire; the U.S. denies Iran's claims. No matter the case, both sides have been actively deploying various weapons on the ground and in the waters off Iran's coast. The situation has become intensified with jets, drones, missiles, and ordnance producing explosions and damage, especially in the UAE, which has joined forces with Israel and the United States.
If there's a ceasefire at all, it appears to be under stress as both sides continue efforts to open or close down shipping lanes and employ defensive and offensive measures on limited targets. Israeli forces remain bogged down in southern Lebanon and have been eerily quiet of late. The situation remains, to say the least, fluid.
Oil prices have risen. WTI crude oil futures are trading in a range of $95-97.
Through Thursday's close, the Dow is up 97 points for the week, NASDAQ is 691, and the S&P is ahead by 107.
Friday's session looks to be as volatile as those preceding it this week and stocks could go either way, depending on how Middle East developments are perceived by trades and speculators. Considering how stocks have been trading since the star of the Iran war, now more than two months deep, the choice to stay long or short over the weekend is likely to be a major consideration.
At the Close, Thursday, May 7, 2026:
Dow: 49,596.97, -313.62 (-0.63%)
NASDAQ: 25,806.20, -32.75 (-0.13%)
S&P 500: 7,337.11, -28.01 (-0.38%)
NYSE Composite: 23,011.31, -273.08 (-1.17%)
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