new york – U.S. stocks are heading for a quiet end to the weekend on Friday, with Nvidia shares continuing to cool off from their stunning supernova explosion.
S&The P500 was down 0.2% in morning trading but remains near the all-time high it hit on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 49 points, or 0.1%, as of 10 a.m. Eastern time, while the Nasdaq Composite was down 0.3%.
Nvidia Inc. again dragged down the market, dropping 2.9%. The company’s shares have soared more than 1,000% since October 2022 on frenzied demand for its chips, which power much of the world’s transition to artificial intelligence technologies, and briefly overtook Microsoft this week to become Wall Street’s most valuable company.
But nothing goes up forever, and Nvidia’s shares have fallen over the past two days, bringing them to their first declining week in the last nine weeks.
Most of the rest of Wall Street was relatively quiet, with a few exceptions.
Sarepta Therapeutics shares rose 35.3% after U.S. regulators approved the company’s drug for use in children ages 4 and older with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
CarMax rose 2% after reporting profits for its latest quarter that slightly beat analysts’ expectations.
Gun manufacturer Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. fell 12.6% despite reporting profits for its latest quarter that beat analysts’ expectations. Chief Executive Mark Smith said summer is traditionally a slow season for firearms sales.
Trading can feature many changes throughout the day as a wide range of futures and options contracts for buying stocks and other investments expire.
In bond markets, U.S. Treasury yields initially fell after reports showed economic activity in euro zone countries was weaker than economists had expected. In continental Europe, worries are already building ahead of French elections that could further destabilize financial markets.
The weak business activity report pushed down European yields and initially weighed on U.S. Treasury yields, but then a separate report suggested U.S. business activity may be stronger than expected, allowing Treasury yields to recover much of their losses.
Overall output growth reached its highest level in 26 months, according to the S.&A preliminary analysis of U.S. manufacturing and service sector activity by P Global. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, this strength is likely occurring without any rising inflationary pressures.
“A historical comparison suggests that the recent decline has brought the survey price index into line with the Fed’s 2% inflation target,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S Capital Management.&P Global Market Intelligence.
The Federal Reserve is in a precarious position, trying to slow the economy with high interest rates enough to bring high inflation down to 2%. The key is to cut interest rates at the right time. Too late and the slowdown risks turning into a recession. Too early and inflation risks accelerating again.
Hope remains rife among traders that the Fed can get it done, with many expecting at least two rate cuts later this year, according to data from CME Group. Of course, those forecasts have historically been overly optimistic.
Fed officials plan to cut their key interest rate, which is at its highest level in more than two decades, once or twice in 2024.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 4.25% from Thursday’s close of 4.26%. The yield on the two-year note fell to 4.72% from 4.74%.
Overseas, many Asian stock indexes also fell, with Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index down 1.7% and South Korea’s KOSPI down 0.8%.
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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.
