Stocks rise after better than expected jobs growth reported for March Stocks appeared tentative in early morning trading leading up to the Bureau of Labor Statistics' monthly jobs data. However, after it was reported that more jobs than expected were added to nonfarm payrolls last month, stocks found a bid and the major averages have been in the green since the open. Adding a potential tailwind were comments from President Trump, who is now calling on the Federal Reserve to undertake a new round of quantitative easing. The President, who has previously urged the central bank to cut rates, is getting more aggressive with his easy money requests as he seeks approval for his two new nominees to serve on the board of the Fed, Stephen Moore and Herman Cain. ECONOMIC EVENTS: In the U.S., nonfarm payrolls increased 196,000 in March, topping the 177,000 job addition consensus estimate. The unemployment rate was steady at 3.8%. Average hourly earnings were up 0.1% month-over-month and 3.2% year-over-year, both of which were a bit lower than forecast. TOP NEWS: Continuing the heated saga between the Securities and Exchange Commission and Tesla (TSLA) CEO Elon Musk, CNBC reported yesterday that a federal judge gave Musk and the SEC two weeks to iron out the differences between them. The judge made such comments in court at a hearing over whether Musk violated his October 2018 settlement with the SEC by posting information about the car maker on his Twitter account, after which the SEC asked a court to hold the CEO in contempt. The New York Post reported, moreover, that Judge Alison Nathan warned Musk to "proceed cautiously" with his tweeting, and that he needs to put his "reasonableness pants on and work this out." In other auto-related news, the European Commission has informed BMW (BMWYY), Daimler (DDAIF) and VW (VLKAY) of its preliminary view that the car makers have breached EU antitrust rules from 2006 to 2014 by colluding to restrict competition on the development of technology to clean the emissions of gas and diesel passenger cars. According to an official statement, the Commission's preliminary view is that the companies participated in a collusive scheme, in breach of EU competition rules, to "limit the development and roll-out of emission cleaning technology for new diesel and petrol passenger cars sold in the European Economic Area." Meanwhile, Lyft (LYFT) shares jumped about 5% after Andrew Left's Citron Research advised against shorting shares of the ride-hailing company. The firm stated in a new research report the that same short thesis that is being passed around on Lyft by the "amateur shorts" would have seen investors short Amazon (AMZN), Netflix (NFLX), Square (SQ) and others. MAJOR MOVERS: Among the noteworthy gainers was Triumph Group (TGI), which rose 12% after announcing it is exploring strategic alternatives for its Aerospace Structures unit. Also higher was Boot Barn (BOOT), which gained 8% after being selected to enter the S&P SmallCap 600 index. Among the notable losers was LivaNova (LIVN), which slid 27% after it reported lower than expected preliminary revenue for the first quarter and said it is "currently reviewing" 2019 guidance. Also lower was Duluth Holdings (DLTH), which fell 24% after reporting quarterly results. INDEXES: Near midday, the Dow was up 22.25, or 0.08%, to 26,406.88 , the Nasdaq was up 36.02, or 0.46%, to 7,927.81 , and the S&P 500 was up 9.73, or 0.34%, to 2,889.12 . Symbols: $TSLA $BMWYY $DDAIF $VLKAY $LYFT $AMZN $NFLX $SQ $TGI $BOOT $LIVN $DLTHSource: (thefly.com)