On Friday, U.S. stocks experienced a rally, undoing the negative performance from Thursday. Thursday’s session had ended the longest winning streak in over two years due to hawkish comments made by Powell regarding Federal Reserve policy.
The tech sector, led by the performance of the Magnificent 7 titans, saw a rise, particularly with Microsoft Corp. reaching new all-time highs at $367.
Bitcoin also saw an increase, marking its fourth consecutive week of gains, which is the best streak since January 2023.
In November, the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index fell to 60.4, the lowest in six months, significantly below the forecast of 63.7. However, five-year inflation expectations reached 4.4%, the highest level since March 2011.
In Friday’s trading, the S&P 500 rose 1% and was on track to end the week positively. Blue chips in the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7%, also aiming to finish the week in the green. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 surged 1.8%, pushing weekly gains to 2.4%. Small caps rose 0.8%, but remained negative for the week.
For major U.S. equity ETFs on Thursday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust increased by 1.2% to $439.15, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF rose 0.9% to $342.02, and the Invesco QQQ Trust rose 1.9% to $376.93.
In terms of S&P 500 sector ETFs, the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund outperformed with a 2.2% rise, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund only increased by 0.1%.
Some stocks that were in focus due to earnings news include Plug Power, Inc., which tumbled over 43% following a third-quarter miss and a “going concern” warning. Other stocks moving on earnings news included Alarm.com Holdings, Inc., Blink Charging Co., Hologic, Inc., Illumina, Inc., Lions Gate Entertainment Corp., Navitas Semiconductor Corporation, Unity Software Inc., The Trade Desk, Inc., and Wynn Resorts, Limited.
In commodities, crude oil rose 2.2% with a barrel of WTI-grade crude trading at $81. The United States Oil Fund ETF increased by 2.3% to $71.83. Treasury yields remained mostly steady, with the 10-year yield at 4.63% and the two-year yield up by 3 basis points to 5.05%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF increased by 0.4%.
The U.S. dollar eased, with the U.S. dollar index down 0.1%. The EUR/USD pair was 0.1% higher. European equity indices had a positive session with the SPDR DJ Euro STOXX 50 ETF rising 0.5%. Gold fell 1.2% to $1,934/oz, while silver fell 1.8% to $22.22.
