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 midday trading but remains near the all-time high it hit on Tuesday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 40 points, or 0.1%, as of 11:30 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq Composite was little changed.
Nvidia again dragged the market down after falling 2%, 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 36.1% after U.S. regulators approved the company’s drug for use in children ages 4 and older with Duchenne muscular dystrophy.
CarMax rose 1.8 percent after reporting profits for its latest quarter that slightly beat analysts’ expectations.
Gun maker Smith & Wesson Brands Inc. fell 11.3% 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.
Trump Media Technology Group Inc. shares fell 4.8%, bringing their loss for the week to 31.3%. Shares of the company behind Donald Trump’s Truth social platform fell 4.8%. Former President’s Conviction In late May, he was charged with plotting to illegally influence the 2016 election. Hush money paid to porn actors The two stated they had had sex.
Wall Street trading can see a lot of movement throughout the day as a wide range of futures and options contracts to buy 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 from S&P Global showed that overall output growth hit its highest level in 26 months. Perhaps more importantly for Wall Street, the strength is likely occurring without 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, Lowering interest rates Just the right time: wait too long and the economic slowdown risks turning into a recession, act too soon and inflation risks reviving.
Hope still circulates among traders that the Fed can get it done, with many expecting at least two rate cuts in the second half of the year, according to data from CME Group. Of course, their predictions have regularly proven wrong. Overly optimistic Throughout history.
Fed officials expect to cut their key interest rate, which is at its highest in more than two decades, once or twice in 2024. The economy is still growing, albeit slowing under the pressure of high interest rates. housing Manufacturing has been hit hard, Low-income families are struggling To keep up with ever-rising prices.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note was steady at 4.26%, while the yield on the two-year note was unchanged at 4.74%.
Overseas, European stocks fell on weak European economic data, and many Asian indexes also fell. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1.7% and South Korea’s KOSPI dropped 0.8%.
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AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.
