The Dow Jones today fell over 100 points in pre-market trading, as investors digested this morning's release of the April jobs report. The United States added 164,000 new positions in April, falling short of the 190,000 new jobs expected by economists. Despite this miss, unemployment fell to 3.9% - the lowest level since 2000.
As Money Morning's options trading specialist, Tom Gentile, points out, "May is not known for being the kindest month to the markets." He's certainly right - in just the last four days, the market volatility index has surged, rattling even the most experienced investor. However, Tom has a strategy for beating May's volatility - check it out here...
Here are the numbers from Thursday for the Dow, S&P 500, and Nasdaq:
| Index | Previous Close | Point Change | Percentage Change |
| Dow Jones | 23,930.15 | 5.17 | 0.02% |
| Nasdaq | 7,088.15 | -12.75 | -0.18% |
| S&P 500 | 2,629.73 | -5.94 | -0.23% |
Now here's a closer look at today's most important market events and stocks, plus Friday's economic calendar.
MUST SEE: Watch this guy officially become $1,050 richer in 15 seconds... $940 richer in 11 seconds... $1,260 richer in eight seconds... and $988 richer in seven seconds! Then discover how you could do this all yourself. Click here...
Money Morning Insight of the Day
Earnings season is well underway. And if you're looking to make real money, the time to get started is now. Money Morning Quantitative Specialist Chris Johnson argues that the markets are at a tipping point. And with just a few smart plays in today's classic stock-picker's market... you can pull in triple-digit gains with just a small investment. Read those picks, right here.
The Top Stock Market Stories for Friday
- Markets are optimistic about the possibility of breakthrough on U.S. trade relations with China. On Thursday, U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and leading U.S. trade officials arrived in China for two days of talks around commerce between the two countries. Trade officials are looking for a bilateral agreement to avoid tariffs and the start of a massive trade war. Markets are welcoming the dialogue after trade tensions weighed on the markets over the last few months.
- Warren Buffett is making a lot of noise this morning after his talk with CNBC on the market. This morning, Buffett said that he purchased another 75 million shares of Apple Inc. (Nasdaq: AAPL) stock during the first quarter. Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK.A) now owns roughly 240.3 million shares of the stock. He also said that Wall Street's constant obsession with the number of iPhone X devices sold misses the point of how successful that the company is... and could be. Buffett will host Berkshire Hathaway's annual shareholder meeting in Omaha, Neb., over the weekend.
- Elon Musk has defended his bizarre earnings call from Wednesday afternoon and took exception with analysts who are betting against Tesla Inc. (Nasdaq: TSLA). Musk announced Wednesday that his company burned through $700 million in cash during the first quarter of 2018. Musk then refused to take any more questions on the company's fiscal health, dismissing analysts' questions as "boring." Musk instead spent the rest of the quarterly call taking questions from a YouTuber named Gali Russell, who had lobbied Musk on Twitter to let him partake in the earnings call. As Tesla continues to exhibit immense volatility, we've discovered a way to make a big gain on Tesla stock in the coming weeks.
Three Stocks to Watch Today: BABA, GPRO, TWTR
- Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. (NYSE: BABA) stock added 1.5% after the firm reported earnings this morning. The company reported $0.91 per share on top of $9.87 billion in revenue. Wall Street had expected $0.88 on top of $9.175 billion. Alibaba reported stronger-than-expected e-commerce and cloud computing sales. It also said that its total user base increased by another 37 million, to hit 552 million.
- Shares of GoPro Inc. (Nasdaq: GPRO) fell another 1.6% despite the news that the firm topped Wall Street earnings expectations. In the first quarter, GoPro reported a smaller-than-expected quarterly loss. It also topped revenue expectations. The firm said that it has generally improved its marketing campaigns and managed its expenses.
- Shares of Twitter Inc. (NYSE: TWTR) slumped about 1% after the firm disclosed that a glitch exposed a number of user passwords. Reuters reports that the glitch made it possible for certain passwords to be stored as "readable text."
- Other firms reporting earnings include Celgene Corp. (Nasdaq: CELG), V.F. Corp. (NYSE: VFC), CBOE Global Markets (Nasdaq: CBOE), GOGO Inc. (Nasdaq: GOGO), Buckeye Partners LP (NYSE: BPL), and ITT Corp. (NYSE: ITT).
Follow Money Morning on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
[mmpazkzone name="in-story" network="9794" site="307044" id="137008" type="4"]
About the Author
Garrett Baldwin is a globally recognized research economist, financial writer, consultant, and political risk analyst with decades of trading experience and degrees in economics, cybersecurity, and business from Johns Hopkins, Purdue, Indiana University, and Northwestern.