The Russell 2000 was last up around 0.8%, on pace for its 3rd straight positive day.  Small Cap leaders on Friday include OpenDoor, Twist Bioscience, Re/Max, Alignment Healthcare, all higher by more than 20%.

The index traded above its 50-day moving average level of 2,039.16 for the first time since April 11.

Week to date, the Russell 2000 is up 1.5%, on track for its second consecutive positive week.

The auditing firm for Trump Media and the auditor’s owner were charged Friday with “massive fraud” by the Securities and Exchange Commission for work that affected more than 1,500 SEC filings, the federal regulator announced.

The auditor, BF Borgers CPA and its owner Benjamin Borgers have agreed to be permanently suspended from practicing as accountants before the SEC, and also agreed to pay a combined $14 million in civil penalties, with admitting or denying the allegations, the SEC said.

The bombshell SEC action raised questions about the accuracy of the financial information in thousands of reports that were issued by the companies Borgers audited, including Trump Media, whose majority shareholder is former President Donald Trump.

Trump Media shares fell 5%.

For more read the full story here.

— Dan Mangan, Rohan Goswami, Tanaya Macheel

Activity in the U.S. services sector contracted in April for the first time since December 2022, according to an Institute for Supply Management report Friday.

The ISM services index fell to 49.4, down 2 points from March and below the Dow Jones estimate for 52. The index measures firms report expansion against contraction, so any reading below 50 denotes a pullback, and April’s gauge ended a streak of 15 months of growth.

Along with the broad index pullback, the prices index jumped 5.8 points to 59.2, reflecting ongoing inflation pressures. Inventories and order backlogs also saw gains, while production, employment and new orders declined.

—Jeff Cox

Corn futures rose about 1% Friday to trade at a nearly four-month high of 464.75 per bushel.

Since the start of the week, corn is up more than 3% and on pace for its second consecutive positive week. Corn rose 3.8% last week and currently sits at its highest level since Jan. 5.

— Samantha Subin, Gina Francolla

Stocks opened higher Friday following a softer-than-expected jobs report for April.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 578 points, or 1.5%. The S&P 500 surged 1.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.8%.

— Samantha Subin

April’s weaker-than-expected jobs report should benefit equities in the short term, according to Nuveen’s Saira Malik.

“This is one data point, but it’s one data point in the right direction,” the chief investment officer told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday. “In the short term, it’s going to add to this relief rally that we’re already seeing from a less hawkish Fed and strong earnings.”

Weaker manufacturing data remain a concern longer term and could put rate hikes back on the table if the economy shows signs of continued resilience, she added.

— Samantha Subin

These are the stocks moving the most in premarket trading:

• Apple — The tech giant jumped more than 7% after announcing it would repurchase $110 billion of its own stock and a top- and bottom-line beat.
• Amgen — Shares soared 12% after the biotech firm posted a first-quarter earnings and revenue beat.
• Cloudflare — The stock continued to sink, plunging 11% after reporting weak full-year guidance, although Cloudflare posted a first-quarter earnings and revenue beat.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The nonfarm payrolls report for April showed 175,000 jobs added, below the 240,000 jobs expected by economists surveyed by Dow Jones.

The unemployment rate ticked up to 3.9%, compared to 3.8% in the prior month, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Revisions to February and March jobs numbers decreased the cumulative jobs added in those periods by 22,000.

— Jesse Pound

European stocks opened cautiously higher on Friday, with the Stoxx 600 index up 0.23% at 8:10 a.m. in London.

Germany’s DAX and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 were both up by 0.3%, while France’s CAC 40 nudged 0.2% higher.

— Jenni Reid

The Japanese yen was trading at 152.93 against the U.S. dollar, and was set to end its best week in over a year, despite hitting its weakest level since 1990 on Monday at 160.03.

Analysts, including from BofA, have suggested there were likely two interventions carried out by Japanese authorities during the week, on Monday and Wednesday. The authorities are yet to make an official statement to confirm the interventions.

“The government has been refusing to disclose whether they’ve been intervening or not, but I don’t think many people have any doubts,” Nicholas Smith, Japan strategist at CLSA, told CNBC.

The yen has recovered some 4.5% since it hit a 34-year low on Monday.

HSBC said in a client note that yen weakness plays a key role in “reflating” Japan’s economy, a goal that the Bank of Japan expects to achieve this year.

“After years and years of losing competitiveness, exporters are at last feeling the lift from exchange rate realignment. And, one might suspect, an even weaker exchange rate, and for longer, may be needed, to turn the lift into an enduring manufacturing renaissance,” Frederic Neumann, chief Asia economist at HSBC said.

Neumann said the weaker yen is boosting Japan’s service sector via tourism, in turn helping lift inflation expectations.

“A weaker yen, in other words, is not entirely unwelcome, as long as the decline is orderly. Thus, don’t expect the BOJ to rush into aggressive tightening just because the exchange rate is wobbly,” Neumann added.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Demand for power and data centers has been taking the world by storm, and its not just the U.S. tech giants that are set to benefit, according to Goldman Sachs.

Europe is set see a pick up in demand and electricity consumption by as much as 50% in the next 10 years – reversing the slump it has been facing since 2008, the investment bank’s analysts noted.

The massive growth translates to an investment of nearly 800 euros ($857.5 billion) in Europe’s power transmission and distribution network, they added, naming stocks with over 30% upside potential on their radar.

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Amala Balakrishner

European companies are more cash-rich than they’ve been in recent history.

Companies in the Stoxx 600 index have nearly 1.5 trillion euros ($1.6 trillion) in cash on their balance sheets — that’s 25% higher than pre-pandemic levels, according to Goldman Sachs.

And the dividend yield differential between Europe and the U.S. is the narrowest it’s ever been, making Europe more appealing, according to Goldman Sachs. “In other words, Europe has rarely looked cheaper on an absolute and relative basis,” it said.

CNBC Pro takes a look at some stocks that turned up on Goldman’s screen of high dividend yield names. They are companies in the Stoxx Europe 600 with the highest 12-month forward dividend yields in each sector.

Subscribers can read more here.

— Weizhen Tan

Check out the companies making headlines in after-hours trading:

• Apple — The iPhone maker advanced 7% as it announced a $110 billion share repurchase and a top- and bottom-line beat. Apple’s fiscal second-quarter earnings came in at $1.53 per share, while revenue was $90.75 billion. That surpassed analysts’ estimates for earnings of $1.50 per share on revenue of $90.01 billion, per LSEG.
• Expedia — The online travel company dropped roughly 8% in after-hours trading. Expedia lowered its full-year guidance to a range of mid to high single-digit top-line growth, citing slowness in Vrbo and the rate of acceleration in business-to-consumer so far. Expedia posted a beat on first-quarter revenue, which came in at $2.89 billion, surpassing analysts’ estimates of $2.81 billion, per LSEG.
• Amgen — The biotech company surged 11%. Amgen posted adjusted earnings of $3.96 per share on revenue of $7.45 billion in the first quarter. Analysts polled by LSEG anticipated earnings of $3.87 per share and revenue of $7.44 billion. The company also said it would move its injectable obesity drug into a phase 3 trial, but it will no longer pursue an experimental weight loss pill it had in development.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh