U.S. stocks closed out the trading week near the unchanged mark in a subdued session on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow posting weekly declines, while the Nasdaq secured its fourth consecutive week of gains.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86.06 points, or 0.20%, to 43,828.06, the S&P 500 lost 0.16 point, or 0.00%, to 6,051.09 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 23.88 points, or 0.12%, to 19,926.72.
Market Movers
Broadcom surged 24% after the semiconductor company reported fiscal fourth-quarter adjusted earnings that beat analysts' estimates on revenue of $14.05 billion, up 51% from a year earlier. The company said artificial-intelligence revenue for the fiscal year soared 220%. CEO Hock Tan told analysts on a conference call that the AI market opportunity for accelerators and networking in fiscal 2027 will range from $60 billion to $90 billion. Broadcom's market cap surpassed $1 trillion for the first time.
Broadcom's earnings lifted shares of Micron Technology up 4.3%. Micron, America's largest memory chip maker, is scheduled to report fiscal first-quarter earnings next week.
Costco Wholesale's fiscal first-quarter earnings of $4.04 a share beat Wall Street expectations of $3.79. Net revenue, including sales and membership fees, were $62.2 billion this quarter, up from $57.8 billion a year earlier but missing expectations of $66.5 billion. Same-store sales rose 5.2%, in line with estimates. Shares of the warehouse retailer were flat.
RH swung to a profit in its fiscal third quarter as revenue rose 8.1% to $811.7 million. The stock rose 17% after the home furnishings company said it expects fourth-quarter revenue to increase 18% to 20% from a year earlier. RH said it projects fourth-quarter demand growth of 20% to 22% despite "the worst housing market in 30 years."
Tesla rose 4.3% to $436.23, which is a record closing high. The stock fell 1.6% on Thursday, snapping a six-session winning streak. The electric-vehicle maker has risen 72% in 2024.
Palantir Technologies rose 3.9% and MicroStrategy gained 4.2%. The two lead the list of companies that could be added to the Nasdaq 100 when changes to the index are announced as part of its annual reconstitution at 8 p.m. Eastern time Friday.
Affirm rose 2.8% after the "buy now, pay later" company announced it had entered into a long-term capital partnership with Sixth Street. The investment firm will purchase $4 billion of Affirm loans over three years. Affirm said the "transaction represents the largest capital commitment secured by Affirm to date."
Boeing gained 1.1% after the aerospace giant said it plans to invest $1 billion to boost production of its 787 Dreamliner jets. Boeing reiterated plans to increase production of the plane to 10 a month by 2026, up from a rate of about five a month in 2023.
Upstart Holdings rose 9.6% to $84.46 after Needham analysts upgraded shares to Buy from Hold and established a price target of $100. Upstart is a lending marketplace that uses artificial intelligence to assess borrowers' creditworthiness.
ServiceTitan fell 1% to $100 on Friday. Shares of the software platform closed their first day of trading Thursday at $101 a share, flat with their debut price, but 42% above their initial offering price of $71.
Charles Schwab was down 4%. The brokerage raised its forecast for 2024 net revenue, saying it was benefiting from a combination of increased investor engagement, postelection equity market strength, and the stabilization of client transactional sweep cash balances. Transactional sweep cash, a closely watched metric, ended November at $393.7 billion, flat compared with the prior month.
Market News
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi hospitalized after injury in Luxembourg
Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was hospitalized after being injured while traveling with a congressional delegation in Luxembourg, her office said Friday.
Pelosi, 84, “sustained an injury during an official engagement and was admitted to the hospital for evaluation,” her spokesman Ian Krager said in a press release.
Elon Musk Wanted to Make OpenAI a For-Profit Company He Controlled, Messages Show
Elon Musk pushed for OpenAI to become a for-profit company that he would control before leaving its board amid a power struggle in 2018, according to internal company communications the ChatGPT maker released online.
Musk, who co-founded OpenAI and provided it with seed money, had his wealth manager register a public-benefit corporation—a for-profit company that is also committed to a social good—called Open Artificial Intelligence Technologies Inc., in Delaware in September of 2017, according to the documents. Two days earlier Musk wrote OpenAI co-founder Ilya Sutskever an email proposing a for-profit structure in which he would “unequivocally have initial control of the company.”
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