US stock futures climbed higher on Friday amid a boost from Apple, while investors look ahead to the April jobs report. Dow and Nasdaq 100 futures both jumped about 0.6%, while S&P 500 gained 0.3%. In extended trading, Apple rallied 6% after announcing a $110 billion share buyback and reporting better-than-expected earnings and revenue. Amgen also surged 14% on an earnings and revenue beat, while Cloudflare tumbled 13% after issuing weak revenue guidance for the full year. In regular trading on Thursday, the Dow rose 0.85%, the S&P 500 gained 0.91% and the Nasdaq Composite rallied 1.51%. Nine out of the 11 S&P sectors finished higher, led by technology, consumer discretionary and real estate. Those moves came a day after the Federal Reserve held rates steady and Fed Chair Powell ruled out another rate hike from the central bank. Investors now await Friday’s highly anticipated jobs report for clues on the strength of the labor market.

Argentina's central bank slashed the benchmark interest rate by 10 percentage points to 50%, marking the fifth adjustment since December and the third in the last three weeks. The monetary authority attributes the decision to a notable slowdown in monthly inflation and a "rapid adjustment" of inflation expectations, coupled with the strengthening of fiscal anchors. In March, Argentina's monthly inflation slowed more than expected for the third consecutive time, with consumer prices rising by 11% from February to March, below economists' forecast of 12.1%. President Javier Milei's administration has prioritized stringent spending cuts since December to combat inflation, with his economic team forecasting monthly inflation to decrease to 3.8% by September.

New orders for US manufactured goods rose by 1.6% from the previous month to $584.5 billion in March of 2024, following a 1.2% increase in February, in line with expectations. New orders expanded by 2.6% for durable goods industries, lifted by transportation equipment (7.8%), fabricated metal products (0.2%) and computers and electronic products (0.7%). In the meantime, orders in non-durable goods industries rose by 0.6%. Excluding transportation, factory orders rose by a softer 0.5%.

Canada reported a trade deficit of CAD 2.3 billion in March of 2024, contrasting with a surplus of CAD 0.5 billion in February and against market forecasts of a CAD 1.5 billion surplus. It was the first monthly trade gap since December and the largest one since June, as exports dropped by 5.3% over a month to CAD 64.1 billion in December. Shipments tumbled for metal & non-metallic mineral products (-17.4%), primarily unwrought gold, silver, & platinum group metals (-32.5%). Additionally, sales of energy products (-4.9%) and motor vehicles and parts (-6.3%) went down. Imports fell by a slower 1.2% to CAD 64.8 billion, mainly due to lower purchases of electronic, electrical equipment and parts (-8.1%) and metal ores and non-metallic minerals (-29.2%).

The trade deficit in the US remained almost unchanged at ten-month highs of $69.4 billion in March 2024, compared to an upwardly revised $69.5 billion in February and forecasts of a $69.1 billion deficit. It reflected an increase in the goods deficit of $0.8 billion to $92.5 billion and an increase in the services surplus of $0.9 billion to $23.1 billion. Exports dropped 2% over a month to $257.6 billion, amid lower shipments of civilian aircraft, other petroleum products, soybeans, nonmonetary gold and travel. Meanwhile, imports fell by 1.6% to $327 billion, on lower acquisitions of passenger cars, industrial supplies & materials, cell phones and other household goods, and transport.

The number of people claiming unemployment benefits in the US was unchanged from the prior week at 208,000 on the period ending April 27th, remaining at the lowest level in two months, and firmly below market expectations of 212,000. It was the fourth consecutive stronger-than-expected result, pointing to continued tightness in the US labor market and adding leeway for the Federal Reserve to delay interest rate cuts should inflation remain stubbornly above the central bank’s target. Additionally, continuing claims held at 1,774,000 in the previous week, the leaset since January. The four-week-moving average for initial claims, which removes week-to-week volatility, fell by 3,500 to 210,000. Non-seasonally-adjusted claims fell by 13,884 to 188,740, with notable declines in California (-4,563) and Massachusetts (-3,361).