NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock markets are heading for a quiet weekend close on Friday. NVIDIA The stock price continues to fall, Amazing supernova explosion.
The S&P 500 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 again dragged the market down after dropping 2.9%, after the company’s shares have soared more than 1,000% since October 2022. Fanatical demand The company’s chips Much of the world’s movement towards artificial intelligence The technology company 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 maker 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 that economic activity in the euro zone was weaker than economists had expected. Concerns were already growing in continental Europe ahead of the French general election. 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.
A preliminary survey of U.S. manufacturing and service activity released by S&P Global showed that aggregate production growth hit its highest level in 26 months. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, the strength is likely occurring without any rising inflationary pressures.
“Historical comparisons suggest that this decline brings the survey’s price index in line with the Fed’s 2% inflation target,” said Chris Williamson, chief business economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.
The Federal Reserve is trying to slow the economy with high interest rates, but only so high that they continue to be so. Inflation falls to 2%The trick is, Interest rate cuts Just the right time: too late and the economic 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. 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.
