Wall Street closed higher on Friday, with all three major indexes posting weekly gains, as investors took comfort from data pointing to robust economic activity in the world's biggest economy.
A measure of business activity raced to a 31-month high in November, boosted by hopes for lower interest rates and more business-friendly policies from President-elect Donald Trump's administration next year.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 1% to set a new closing high, the S&P 500 rose 0.4% to finish higher for the fifth straight day and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%. Tesla rose 4%.
Market Movers
Shares of NVIDIA Corp, the leading maker of chips for artificial-intelligence applications, fell 3.2% after finishing up 0.5% Thursday following better-than-expected third-quarter earnings and an upbeat forecast. Nvidia's guidance, however, wasn't as strong as some on Wall Street had expected.
Snowflake finished down 2.3% after shares of the software company closed Thursday with a gain of 33% following third-quarter earnings and product revenue that topped Wall Street estimates. The stock's strong move Thursday was its largest daily percentage increase on record, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
SUPER MICRO COMPUTER INC gained 12%. Shares of the server maker jumped 15% on Thursday. Super Micro announced at the beginning of the week that it had a plan for filing late earnings reports and had hired a new auditor.
MicroStrategy was up 6.2% following a tumble of 16% on Thursday after short-seller Citron Research said it shorted the stock against a long position in Bitcoin. "Much respect to @saylor, but even he must know MSTR is overheated," Citron wrote in a post on X. The firm was referring to Michael Saylor, chairman and controlling shareholder of MicroStrategy, the largest corporate holder of the cryptocurrency.
Reddit fell 7.2% after shareholder Advance Magazine Publishers said it was seeking to establish a credit facility using an equity stake in the social media company, Bloomberg reported, citing a person familiar with the matter. Advance is offering 7.8 million shares for $145.38 to $148.54 each, which would be valued at as much as $1.2 billion. Reddit shares closed Thursday up 16% at $158.02. Meanwhile, China's Tencent Holdings disclosed Thursday that it sold a chunk of Reddit shares.
Third-quarter earnings and revenue at Ross rose from a year earlier and the stock was up 2.2%. Comparable-store sales rose just 1%, missing analysts' estimates for growth of 2.5%. "We are disappointed with our third-quarter sales results as business slowed from the solid gains we reported in the first half of 2024," said Chief Executive Barbara Rentler, adding the company "should have better executed some of our merchandising initiatives."
NetApp was down 3.4%. The data-storage company reported fiscal second-quarter earnings and revenue that topped estimates. NetApp reported adjusted earnings of $1.87 a share on revenue of $1.66 billion. Analysts had expected profit of $1.78 a share on revenue of $1.65 billion.
Texas Pacific Land rose 14%. The company, which owns significant acreage in the energy-rich Permian Basin, will join the S&P 500, replacing Marathon Oil before the start of trading on Nov. 26. Marathon Oil is being acquired by ConocoPhillips.
Gap, Inc rose 13% after topping third-quarter earnings expectations and raising fiscal-year guidance, with CEO Richard Dickson saying the holiday season was "off to a strong start." Gap, the apparel retailer, anticipates net sales to increase between 1.5% and 2% from a year earlier compared with previous guidance that called for sales to be "up slightly."
Intuit reported fiscal first-quarter earnings that exceeded expectations but shares fell 5.7% after the financial software company and owner of TurboTax issued guidance for the second quarter that was below forecasts. The company reiterated fiscal-year guidance. For the current second quarter, Intuit said it expects adjusted earnings of $2.58 a share at the midpoint of its guidance, below estimates of $3.25. CEO Sasan Goodarzi said promotional changes at some of Intuit's retail sites were expected to delay some sales into the third quarter.
Market News
Trump's Treasury Pick Is Scott Bessent. He's Said It's Absurd to Fear 'Trump-Flation.'
President-elect Donald Trump has selected hedge-fund manager Scott Bessent to serve as secretary of the Treasury Department, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday — picking a Wall Street figure that he praised during his campaign for a key leadership role in his second administration.
Bessent, who for months has been viewed as a likely choice for the Treasury post, has called for a second Trump presidency to focus on deregulation, increased energy production and a lower federal deficit. He also has defended the president-elect’s economic policies from the charge that they would boost inflation, telling MarketWatch in July that it was “absurd” to think they’d be inflationary.
AWS Launches Quantum Embark, Quantum Computing Stocks Blastoff
Amazon.com Web Services announced the Quantum Embark Program today, which prompted quantum computing-related stocks to skyrocket.
Quantum Computing Inc. surged 28% by the time the markets closed on Friday. D-Wave Systems Inc. rocketed 48% by the end of the trade day, and was up another 9% during early post-market action.
Quantum Embark was created to help customers prepare for the era of quantum computing, a nascent field that harnesses the powers of quantum mechanics.
Nvidia-Backed CoreWeave Targets over $35B Valuation in IPO Next Year - Reuters
CoreWeave is aiming to raise more than $3 billion in its IPO, which may happen during Q2, according to a Reuters report on Friday, which cited people familiar with the matter.
The Roseland, N.J. based-company last month said it added a $650 million credit line to give it additional financial flexibility. Prior to the credit facility, CoreWeave had raised $12.7 billion in equity and debt financing over the past 12 months, including a $7.5 billion debt financing round in May. It also raised $2.3 billion in debt — backed by NVIDIA Corp's artificial intelligence chips — in August 2023 from a number of investors.
Gold Scores Strongest Weekly Gain Since March 2023
Front-month gold futures rallied with their largest one-week move since March 2023, snapping a three-week losing streak, sparked by intensifying geopolitical concerns that have bought gold firmly back into investor focus, alongside pressure in equity markets.
Front-month Comex gold (XAUUSD:CUR) for November delivery ended the week +5.6% to $2,709.90/oz, the highest settlement value since November 5 and the biggest one-week percentage gain since the week ending March 17, 2023; on Friday, gold gained 1.4%.
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