The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at a record high as a subdued inflation report stoked hopes for more Federal Reserve rate cuts, which also boosted small-cap stocks and enabled Wall Street's three main indexes to post weekly gains.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 137.89 points, or 0.33%, to 42,313.00, the S&P 500 lost 7.20 points, or 0.13%, to 5,738.17 and the Nasdaq Composite lost 70.70 points, or 0.39%, to 18,119.59. Nvidia falls 2.1%, JD.com jumps 5%, PDD Holdings rises 4.6%, Alibaba up 2.2%.
Market Movers
Costco reported fiscal fourth-quarter earnings of $5.29 a share, topping Wall Street estimates of $5.08, but the stock fell 1.8% after revenue of $79.7 billion slightly missed estimates of $79.9 billion. Same-store sales rose 5.4% in the period, below expectations for an increase of 5.7%.
EchoStar jumped 8.9% following reports that said Dish, its satellite-TV unit, was in advanced merger talks with rival DirecTV. A deal could be finalized as soon as Monday, assuming talks don't fall apart, people familiar with the matter told The Wall Street Journal. The deal also would include Dish's streaming brand, Sling TV, according to the Journal. Bloomberg also reported the two companies were close to a deal. Terms of a potential deal weren't mentioned in either report. AT&T, along with private-equity firm TPG, own DirecTV.
Bristol-Myers Squibb gained 1.6% after the Food and Drug Administration approved Cobenfy, an oral medication for the treatment of schizophrenia in adults. "This drug takes the first new approach to schizophrenia treatment in decades," the FDA said in a statement. People will be able to get the pill, taken twice a day, as soon as next month, Bristol Myers Chief Commercial Officer Adam Lenkowsky told the Journal.
Cassava Sciences Inc fell 11% after the pharmaceutical company reached a settlement with U.S. securities regulators after it and two former executives were charged for "misleading claims" about an Alzheimer's clinical trial. Founder and former CEO Remi Barbier, former senior vice president of neuroscience Dr. Lindsay Burns, and the company will pay more than $40 million to settle the charges.
BlackBerry posted a fiscal second-quarter loss that narrowed from a year earlier as revenue rose 10% to $145 million, beating analysts' estimates of $140.3 million. The security-software company raised its guidance for the fiscal year. BlackBerry shares fell 1.2%.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology were up 6%. Andrew Litinsky, a former contestant on "The Apprentice" and co-founder of Trump Media, has cashed out most of his stake, according to a regulatory filing. Litinsky's United Atlantic Ventures reported holding just 100 shares of Trump Media, the parent company of former President Donald Trump's social-media platform Truth Social, as of Thursday, down from the 7.525 million shares United Atlantic received when Trump's company merged with a blank check company earlier this year.
Wynn rose 7.2% to $97.62 as Morgan Stanley analysts upgraded the casino stock to Overweight from Equal Weight and increased their price target to $104 from $97. Morgan Stanley said Wynn, despite a "very recent rally on lower rates and China stimulus," maintains a low valuation. Peer Las Vegas Sands was up 5.6%.
HP Inc was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at BofA Securities with a $37 price target. Shares of the personal-computer and printer company declined 3.9% to $35.41. The analysts said the ratings change was "predicated on our thesis that any EPS growth will come purely from share buybacks...as potential upside from PCs (including AI PCs) should be offset by lower print margins."
Market News
Nvidia’s Huang Says Nuclear Power an Option to Feed Data Centers
NVIDIA Corp Chief Executive Officer Jensen Huang, who helped create the technology at the heart of the explosion in artificial intelligence computing, said nuclear power is a good option for the renewable energy needed for the growing number of data centers.
“Nuclear is wonderful as one of the sources of energy, one of the sources of sustainable energy,” Huang said Friday in an interview with Bloomberg Television. “It won’t be the only one. We’re going to need energy from all sources and balance the availability and the cost of energy as well as the sustainability over time.”
Trump Says He Will Seek Google's Prosecution If He Wins Election
Former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is the Republican presidential candidate, said on Friday he will seek the prosecution of Alphabet if he wins the Nov. 5 election, claiming that the company only displays "bad stories" about him.
Trump, in his post on Truth Social, gave no evidence for his assertion about Google.
"It has been determined that Google has illegally used a system of only revealing and displaying bad stories about Donald J. Trump, some made up for this purpose while, at the same time, only revealing good stories about" Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, Trump said.
Rocket Lab’s Stock Soars as KeyBanc Raises Price Target
Rocket Lab USA Inc.’s shares ended Friday’s session up 12.5%, boosted by KeyBanc Capital Markets’ price-target hike for the space-launch company.
In a note released Thursday, KeyBanc Capital Markets said it had hosted a nondeal roadshow with Rocket Lab USA, Inc., including the company’s chief financial officer, Adam Spice. “We came away with increased visibility/confidence in [Rocket Lab’s] ability to scale its business, and we continue to believe it is positioning itself to be an industry leader in both launch services and satellite manufacturing/design,” KeyBanc Capital Markets analyst Michael Leshock wrote in the note.
