Biogen is a biotech company that develops, manufactures, and sells therapies for treating neurological and neurodegenerative diseases. The company is the market leader in MS drugs and launched the first approved treatments for spinal muscular atrophy and AD. The company also sells products that treat plaque psoriasis, non-Hodgkin's lymphoma, lymphocytic leukemia, and rheumatoid arthritis. Current research continues on MS and has expanded to include neuroimmunology, ophthalmology, lupus, and other neuromuscular and movement disorders. Founded in 1978, the company is located in Cambridge, Massachusetts, employs 7,605 people, and is a component of the S&P 500.

Stocks are comfortably in the green at midday on Friday, led by a strong jobs report and earnings reports that are often ahead of expectations. Guidance on the impact (or not) of tariffs remains the wild card. On the jobs front, the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) reported that the U.S. economy generated 177,000 nonfarm jobs in April, above our near-consensus forecast of 130,000. March's payrolls were revised lower by 43,000 and February by 15,000. The April result and the revisions to past results raised the three-month average to 155,000 from 152,000. Nonfarm payrolls are one of the indicators that the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) says it watches closely in assessing whether the U.S. is in a recession.

ASML is the leader in photolithography systems used in manufacturing semiconductors. Photolithography is the process in which a light source is used to expose circuit patterns from a photo mask onto a semiconductor wafer. The latest technological advances in this segment allow chipmakers to continually increase the number of transistors on the same area of silicon, with lithography historically representing a high portion of the cost of making cutting-edge chips. ASML outsources the manufacturing of most of its parts, acting like an assembler. ASML’s main clients are TSMC, Samsung, and Intel.

ASML is the leader in photolithography systems used in manufacturing semiconductors. Photolithography is the process in which a light source is used to expose circuit patterns from a photo mask onto a semiconductor wafer. The latest technological advances in this segment allow chipmakers to continually increase the number of transistors on the same area of silicon, with lithography historically representing a high portion of the cost of making cutting-edge chips. ASML outsources the manufacturing of most of its parts, acting like an assembler. ASML’s main clients are TSMC, Samsung, and Intel.