CNBC Business News Update - Market Open: Stocks Higher on Strong Job Creation In April, Exxon Mobil Beats Quarterly Expectations But Cautious Outlook 5/2/25

Episode Date: May 2, 2025

From Wall Street to Main Street, the latest on the markets and what it means for your money. Updated regularly on weekdays, featuring CNBC expert analysis and sound from top business newsmakers. Anchored by CNBC's Jessica Ettinger.

I'm Jessica Edinger CNBC Wall Street is jumping on a solid jobs report better than expected creation in April. The S&P 500 index is on a streak. This has been the help long. This is like the longest Biden speak ever. Be careful what you wish for Mr. President. We are going for nine straight gains, which by the way would give us it's basically the best rally since 2020. CNBC's Carl Kintaniya and Jim Kramer.

The Dow out of the gate of four hundred fifty five points, more than one percent. The S&P 500 index up fifty five points. That's one percent. And the NASDAQ up one hundred thirty six points. That's three quarters of a percent. The U.S. added a more than expected 177,000 jobs in April. Federal workers down by 9,000. That's something that we think is going to come down the road.

A lot of these folks were given severance pay so they don't qualify, plus some of the courts put the jobs back. Manufacturing was down 1,000. Health care and social assistance up by 58,000. This has been a perennial source of job growth. The other thing that's out there is travel and leisure, up by 24,000. That could also be effective.

We've had negative reports there. Well, retail was down as well, but warehousing and transportation up by 29,000. It could have been they were hiring lots of folks in order to handle all the stuff that was coming in ahead of time. Look, embrace it, love it. It's better than expected, but there are things in here that make you wonder, can they last? CNBC senior economics reporter Steve Leesman, but the Labor Department revised the March numbers down by more than 40,000 jobs. The

unemployment rate held steady for April at 4.2 percent. Exxon mobile shares have turned around. They've ticked into the green this morning. The company reported better than expected quarterly results, but the CEO says there is a lot of uncertainty. There was a lot of supply in the market, which depressed prices when this imbalance between demand and supply as we've gone and headed into the second quarter, you know, all the uncertainty that's out there today, the questions around how the tariffs are going to impact economic growth around the world is leading to a lot of speculation and uncertainty around where demand goes. That then puts concerns and pressure on the demand side of the equation. And of course,

OPEC has talked about increasing supply. And so when you have lower demand and higher supply, you're going to get a drop in prices. ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods on CNBC. Chevron reported mixed numbers this morning. Oil prices are slumping on a global forecast of an economic slowdown worldwide because of the Trump tariffs. President Trump just posted that gas has hit $1.98 a gallon. The national average today, according to AAA, is $3.18 a gallon. Bond yields popped on the jobs number this morning.

The 10-year Treasury is what mortgage rates loosely follow. This means mortgage rates could tick higher by this afternoon when Mortgage News Daily reports its new numbers, just as would be buyers head to open houses this weekend. As of this morning, the average rate on a 30-year fixed home loan, 6.8%. Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway holds its investors meeting tomorrow in Omaha, Nebraska. Tens of thousands of people are pouring into the city for the event the 94-year-old Oracle of Omaha will speak. Every year it's called the Woodstock for Investors

and a master class on investing. CNBC will air the event live. Jessica Ettinger, CNBC.