Markets
Yiwen Lu

US stocks cap best week of 2024 with another gain

The S&P 500 was up 0.2% on Friday. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 inched up 0.1%, and the Russell 2000 gained 0.3%.

The S&P 500 is now on a seven-day winning streak, up 3.9% on the week largely thanks to Thursday’s rally following strong consumer spending data and falling weekly jobless claims. Nasdaq 100 gained 5.2%. This was the market’s best week since November and it helped more than erase the market’s losses since the soft July jobs report.

The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ticked down 4.3 basis points to 3.88%, while the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury yield decreased 4.7 basis points to 4.05%. Previously, yields jumped on Thursday after retail sales coming in higher than expected.

Financials was the best-performing S&P 500 ETF on Friday, with a 0.7% gain. But over the past week, tech added 7.7%, the most among all ETFs. Nvidia fueled the rally with an 18.9% advance, its best week in over a year.

Gold prices closed at a record high, up more than 2% to crack $2,500.

Ulta Beauty was the second-best performing S&P 500 constituent on Friday, adding 3.1%, continuing to build on Thursday’s surge after Berkshire Hathaway revealed a small stake in the company.

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SpaceX gets a wave of bullish ratings from Wall Street analysts

SpaceX received more than a dozen positive analyst calls on Tuesday — including from major Wall Street banks — as they initiate coverage on Elon Musk’s space and AI company.

SpaceX went public on June 12 at a $2.2 trillion valuation, the largest debut in history. While the company hasn’t yet posted a profit, it seems to have convinced Wall Street that it will get there and grow its valuation on the way.

Of the at least 17 analysts that gave a rating on Tuesday, all but one gave it a “buy” or “outperform” rating. MoffettNathanson was "neutral."

The ratings come as SpaceX joined the Nasdaq 100 index, a benchmark tech-heavy basket of companies that underpins millions of portfolios. The inclusion adds built-in demand for the stock from index funds and ETFs.

Still, SpaceX fell more than 5% on Tuesday amid a broader sell-off, and is currently effectively flat from its opening price of $150 a share.

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Nike sinks to lowest level since 2014 after warning of “challenged” sales environment in Q4 report

Did Nike do it?

Investors had a mixed reaction after the global sports apparel company reported its fourth quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell. Shares initially rose 5% as Nike beat out Wall Street expectations amid a hefty tariff refund bonus. However, the stock then sank to its lowest level since August 2014 in postmarket trading.

Here are the Q4 numbers:

  • Revenue of $11.0 billion (estimate: $10.8 billion).

  • Adjusted earnings per share of $0.20 (estimate: $0.12).

Ahead of this report, Nike warned that results would be flattered by a one-time tariff refund (now estimated at roughly $0.52 per share for the bottom line). That gave the company an extra cushion in snapping its streak of seven quarters of year-over-year profit declines.

Over the past year, the company had been punished by tariffs on imported goods, stagnant consumer spending, and increasing competition from other footwear brands like New Balance, Adidas, and Hoka.

Outgoing CFO Matthew Friend deemed it an “increasingly challenging operating environment, where sell-through remains challenged.”

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