U.S. Stocks Close Winning Week as Nvidia Cools; S&P 500 Approaches Record High

On Friday, U.S. stocks closed out their most recent winning week as Nvidia's stock began to calm after its spectacular supernova surge.

The S&P 500 fell 0.2% but remained close to its all-time high achieved on Tuesday, capping its eighth winning week in a row.

Nvidia has again dragged the market down, losing 3.2%. Since October 2022, the company's stock has risen more than 1,000% due to feverish demand for its chips, which are powering most of the world's advances in artificial intelligence technology, and it temporarily surpassed Microsoft as the most valuable business on Wall Street this week.

However, nothing lasts long, and Nvidia's stock has lost money for the first time in nine weeks.
Aside from a few outliers, much of Wall Street remained relatively quiet.

Sarepta Therapeutics stock rose 30.1% after regulators in the United States approved the use of its drug for children aged four and up with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.

Smith & Wesson Brands fell 12.9% despite posting a higher-than-expected profit in the previous quarter. CEO Mark Smith says summer is generally a sluggish season for weapons.
Trump Media & Technology Group shares recovered from an early setback, rising 3.4% to cut their weekly loss to 25.3%.

The firm behind Donald Trump's Truth Social platform had seen its shares nearly halve since the former president was convicted in late May on charges related to a plan to fraudulently influence to a porn actor who claimed the two had sex.

Overall, the S&P 500 dropped 8.55 points to 5,464.62. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 15.57 percent to 39,150.33, while the Nasdaq Composite fell 32.23 percent to 17,689.36.

U.S. Treasury yields fell in the bond market after a report revealed that business activity in eurozone countries is lower than economists predicted. Concerns about the continent are already high ahead of the French election, which might further shock financial markets.
The dismal business-activity data drew down European yields, initially pushing Treasury yields.

However, U.S. yields regained much of their losses after another data later in the morning suggested that U.S. business activity was higher than expected.

Overall output growth reached a 26-month high, according to S&P Global's first estimate of activity in the United States manufacturing and services industries. Perhaps more significantly for Wall Street, this strength may occur without a corresponding increase in inflationary pressure.

The Federal Reserve is in a hazardous position, seeking to slow the economy by raising interest rates just enough to bring high inflation back down to 2%. The trick is that it wants to lower interest rates at precisely the right time. If it waits too long, the economy's slowing may spiral into a recession. If it is too soon, inflation may reaccelerate.

Traders remain optimistic that the Fed will pull it off, with many anticipating at least two interest rate decreases later this year, according to CME Group statistics. Of course, their predictions have consistently proven to be too optimistic over time.
Fed policymakers have scheduled one or two rate decreases in 2024 for their main interest rate, which has been at its highest level in over two decades. The economy continues to thrive.
However, it has recently stalled due to rising interest rates. Housing and manufacturing have been particularly hard hit, and lower-income individuals struggle to keep up with growing prices.