Stocks surged on Friday after the April nonfarm payrolls report beat Wall Street’s expectations, pushing the S&P 500 toward its longest run of gains in over two decades. The index rose 1.5%, putting it on track for its ninth straight win, a streak not seen since November 2004.
The Dow Jones jumped 552 points (a 1.3% gain) and the Nasdaq added 1.7%. That rally erased losses the S&P had carried since April 2, the day President Donald Trump reintroduced tariffs he labeled “reciprocal.” The Nasdaq had already bounced back the day before.
The hiring numbers for April came in hot. The US economy added 177,000 jobs, topping the 133,000 estimate from Dow Jones. It was still a drop from the 228,000 added in March, but nobody expected that kind of strength after weeks of recession panic. The unemployment rate stayed flat at 4.2%.
Investors were already optimistic before the data hit. China hinted it might start trade negotiations with the US, but made it clear talks won’t happen unless Trump cancels all unilateral tariffs. Chinese officials said:
“If the US wants to talk, it should show its sincerity and be prepared to correct its wrong practices and cancel the unilateral tariffs.”
Apple stock dropped 3% after the company reported a miss in its services division for Q2. Apple also said it expects $900 million in new costs this quarter because of tariffs. Amazon did better. Its first-quarter earnings beat projections, but the company issued a soft forecast, citing “tariffs and trade policies” as a threat to growth.
Stocks have been climbing ever since Trump announced last month that his new tariffs would be cut to 10% for most countries for 90 days. That pause gave investors some breathing room. Strong earnings reports have helped too. The S&P 500 is now on pace for a 2.3% gain this week. The Dow is set to rise 2.5%, and the Nasdaq is up 2.7% week-to-date.
Meanwhile, Venture capital (VC) firms invested $4.8 billion in crypto startups in the first quarter of 2025, indicating a resurgence of crypto-related deals.
Digital assets firm, Galaxy, reported this in its deal summary, noting that this represents a 40% increase compared to Q4 of 2024.
According to the report, it was not just the amount that VCs poured into crypto firms that increased. The number of deals also rose, with 446 deals in the quarter, representing a 7.5% quarter-on-quarter (QoQ) increase.
Interestingly, the $2 billion investment of the United Arab Emirates’ MGX into Binance accounted for nearly half of the total investment and was enough to make Q1 the best quarter for crypto and blockchain startup investment since 2022 Q3.
However, things would have been significantly different without the MGX investment in Binance. When that deal is removed, the crypto sector recorded only $2.8 billion in investment, which is 20% lower than the previous quarter.
The Binance deal also set the tone for the types of deals investors favored in the quarter. Later-stage investments, such as those in established firms, accounted for 65%, while early-stage deals made up only 35%. This is the first time that later-stage firms have seen a higher percentage of investment since Q1 2021.
Still, pre-seed deals fell slightly, and there were more later-stage deals overall, showing that the market is growing even as crypto innovation continues at a healthy pace.
The Binance deal also influenced which subsector saw the most investment, with the trading/exchange/investing/lending category accounting for 47.9% of the funds, totaling $2.55 billion. DeFi followed with $763 million, showing that it remains an area of interest for VCs.
According to the report, DeFi has been one of the leading sectors for investment over the last two quarters, along with infrastructure. It has seen more interest from investors than gaming/Web3. The gaming sector has now slipped to fifth place, falling behind infrastructure and payments sectors.
However, the gaming sector accounted for 16% of all deals, showing that firms in that sector are getting smaller investments. Trading followed with 62 deals in the quarter, while both infrastructure and AI secured more than 40 deals each. Despite DeFi receiving high capital infusion, it had fewer than 40 deals.
Meanwhile, companies in the US attracted the most interest from VC firms, with 38.6% of all deals in the quarter involving a company with its headquarters in the US. The UK followed with 8.6%, while Singapore and the UAE had 6.4% and 4.4%, respectively.
Interestingly, the Binance deal meant that the US did not lead in the amount invested, with Malta leading with 36.8%. Still, the US had 24.7% of all the amount invested, while Hong Kong, the UK, and Singapore had 13.4%, 6.6%, and 3.2%, respectively.
