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Updated 4:47 p.m. EST
U.S. stocks ended mixed Friday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied following a midday slip from an intraday high.
The Dow ended up 58 points, or 0.15%, while the S&P 500 slipped 36 points, or 0.01%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq finished up 52 points, or 0.35%.
Stocks fell earlier in the session following cautious comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, who said Friday morning that it's still too soon for the central bank to start talking about rate cuts.
Both the Dow and tech-heavy Nasdaq notched their seventh straight positive week. As of Friday, the Dow is higher on the month by 3.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 3.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite has climbed 4.1% so far in December, CNBC reported.
“The Dow Jones Industrial Average has gone from correction to record highs in only 32 trading days,” said Adam Turnquist, Chief Technical Strategist for LPL Financial. “Broadening participation predicated on falling interest rates and signs of a soft-landing scenario have underpinned the recovery.”
Turnquist said that LPL Research views the Dow’s recent record-high rally “as another piece of evidence supporting the health and sustainability of the current bull market.”
The S&P 500 marked its longest winning streak since 2017, and could still soon join the Dow with its own all-time high. The broad market index is less than 2% away from that mark, which was set in January 2022.
DocuSign (DOCU) -) finished up 12.5% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the e-signature software company tapped advisors about a possible sale. Talks are still in preliminary stages, according to the report, which cited people familiar with the situation.
Delta (DAL) -) announced it was adding 11 new Austin flights in April, weeks after American (AAL) -) said it plans to cut 21 routes from the city.
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Updated 2:19 p.m. EST
Stocks falter midday
U.S. stocks began faltering midday Friday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, trying to set a third closing record, fell 49 points, or 0.13%. The Nasdaq Composite lifted 23 points, or 0.16%, and the S&P 500 was down 10 points, or 0.22%.
The sluggish response follows cautious comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, who said Friday morning that it's still too soon for the central bank to start talking about rate cuts.
The mixed response comes on the heels of a good week for stocks, which came in the wake of the Fed's Wednesday indication of a possible pivot on rate cuts next year.
José Torres, senior economist at Interactive Brokers, said in a Friday note that he expected next month's Consumer Price Index to come in hotter than the previous two reports.
"Investors anticipating a March rate hike may be in no mood to marvel at the sight of daffodils pushing their shoots up through the frigid ground," Torres said. "Rather, a celebratory rate hike may not occur until households start dusting off their lawnmowers in May at the earliest."
Shares of Roku (ROKU) -) tumbled more than 6% Friday afternoon after MoffettNathanson downgraded the stock from neutral to sell.
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Updated 12:29 p.m. EST
Dow reaches a high
After a mixed morning — brought on by comments from New York Federal Reserve President John Williams, who told CNBC that the U.S. central bank is not yet talking about rate cuts — all the major indexes lifted into the green.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average reached a record, rising 40 points, or 0.11%, to 37,287.22, above its record Thursday close of 37,248. The S&P 500 rose 0.07% and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.47%.
Shares of Colgate-Palmolive (CL) -) ticked up just under 1%. Bank of America upgraded the stock to buy from neutral, according to CNBC.
Shares of Darden Restaurants (DRI) -), meanwhile, fell more than 1% Friday in the wake of fiscal 2024 second-quarter earnings results that beat Wall Street expectations. The Olive Garden owner said during the company's earnings call that Darden anticipated a drop in foot traffic for the full year.
Shares of Costco (COST) -), which reported earnings Thursday, lifted more than 4% Friday after the company beat analyst expectations and announced a special dividend of $15 per share.
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Updated 10:12 a.m. EST
Tech bull market begins: Ives
U.S. stocks were mixed Friday morning, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average falling 82 points, or 0.22%, at last check. The S&P 500 fell 4 points, or 0.07% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 59 points, or 0.4%.
The mixed opening comes as the S&P and Nasdaq are set to go through their quarterly rebalancing Friday, which will see Uber (UBER) -) added to the S&P, and DoorDash (DASH) -) and MongoDB (MDB) -) added to the Nasdaq 100, according to CNBC.
As the S&P flirts with highs it last achieved at the very beginning of 2022, Wedbush Securities analyst Dan Ives, predicting a major acceleration in the tech sector through 2024, said in a Friday note that the tech bull market has officially begun.
Ives expects AI-driven spending will be up at least 20% next year. He said that tech stocks, led by Big Tech, are poised to rise a further 20% throughout 2024 as AI spending continues to increase.
"We view AI as the most transformative technology trend since the start of the Internet in 1995 and believe many on the Street are still underestimating the $1 trillion of AI spend set to happen over the next decade," Ives wrote.
Some of Ives' favorite tech names include Apple (AAPL) -), Google (GOOGL) -), Microsoft (MSFT) -) and MongoDB.
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U.S. stock futures rose Friday as investor excitement over the Federal Reserve's Wednesday indication that rate cuts might be coming in 2024 continued.
Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average indicated an opening-bell increase of 129 points. S&P 500 futures lifted 13 points and Nasdaq 100 futures rose 58 points.
After closing above 37,000 for the first time on Wednesday, the Dow rose another 158 points to close at a record 37,248. The Dow is on track for a seventh week of gains.
The S&P is also on track for its seventh straight week of gains, which CNBC reported was its longest run since 2017. The index is in the vicinity of its early 2022 highs.
The stock market's rally this week came on the heels of the Fed's pivot away from interest-rate increases toward cuts in 2024, indicating that three rate cuts could be on the way next year. November retail sales, indicating a 0.3% rebound, also came in stronger than anticipated Thursday, a further boost to hopes of a soft landing.
“What we heard from Fed Chair Powell was that it’s not about the economy, it’s not about financial conditions, it’s not about the jobs market. It’s about inflation and inflation have been coming down pretty far and fast,” Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at Capital, told CNBC Thursday.
As stocks pushed higher this week, bond yields fell; after lifting above 5% in October, the 10-year Treasury yield fell below 4% for the first time since August.
Mortgage rates Thursday also fell below 7% for the first time since August, according to data from Freddie Mac. The 30-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.95% for the week ending Dec. 14. The 15-year fixed-rate mortgage fell to 6.38%.
"It's definitely a good start to a thaw" in the housing market, Redfin's chief economist, Daryl Fairweather, told CNBC Thursday. He added that more improvement on interest rates is still needed for the housing market to truly enter "recovery mode."
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