Daily Market Report – May 8, 2026

The US stock markets continued their record rally on Friday. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite rose to new all-time highs during the day, supported by surprisingly robust US labor market data as well as a renewed rally in AI and semiconductor stocks.

The Nasdaq Composite particularly benefited from strong gains in Nvidia (NVDA TradingView), Micron (MU TradingView), and Sandisk (SNDK TradingView). Micron and Sandisk temporarily surged by around 12%, while the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index expanded its gains in the second quarter to nearly 5%. At the same time, weak corporate outlooks weighed on individual growth stocks such as Cloudflare (NET TradingView) and Trade Desk (TTD TradingView).

The ongoing earnings season remains exceptionally strong. According to Reuters calculations, around 83% of the companies that have reported so far have exceeded analyst estimates. Earnings for S&P 500 companies are expected to rise by nearly 29% in the first quarter – the strongest increase in several years. Particularly, AI-related technology companies are driving upward earnings revisions.

The focus of today's trading day was the official US labor market report for April: U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics – Employment Situation. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy created 115,000 new jobs outside of agriculture; the unemployment rate remained at 4.3%. The health, transportation, and retail sectors showed particularly strong growth. The data significantly exceeded the expectations of many economists and temporarily alleviated recession concerns.

The combination of a robust labor market, strong corporate earnings, and AI optimism currently remains the dominant drivers of Wall Street. Even the renewed tensions between the US and Iran hardly affected the stock markets. Brent crude oil fluctuated around the $100 per barrel mark, while gold gained slightly. The yield on 10-year US Treasury bonds rose to around 4.36% following the labor market data.

European markets, on the other hand, developed weaker. The DAX (DAX TradingView) fell, weighed down by higher energy prices and profit-taking after the strong rally of recent weeks. In Asia, semiconductor and AI stocks were once again in focus; in particular, South Korean chip companies saw significant gains.