U.S. Stock Market Close | Indices Consolidate Awaiting Next Week’s Test, Tech Stocks Mixed; NVIDIA and AMD Strengthen, Intel Plummets 17% Post-Earnings; Metals Rally Reaches Climax, Silver Surpasses $100, Gold Nears $5,000

On Friday Eastern Time, as investors digested a series of geopolitical events and robust U.S. economic data throughout the week, they turned their attention to next week’s Federal Reserve meeting and earnings reports from major technology companies. U.S. stocks and bonds exhibited volatility during the day, while the dollar suffered significant losses, allowing precious metals and non-U.S. currencies to surge.

The three major indices posted mixed results,$Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$with slight gains.$Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$The Dow fell by 0.6%, while the S&P 500 was largely unchanged, down 0.42% for the week, marking its first back-to-back weekly decline since June of last year. The Russell 2000 Index, which represents small-cap stocks, showed signs of fatigue after outperforming the broader market for 14 consecutive days, dropping 1.8%. Analysts believe some profit-taking occurred ahead of the Federal Reserve’s decision.

Shares of Goldman Sachs plummeted nearly 4%, while Caterpillar fell more than 3%, weighing on the Dow.$NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ and $Advanced Micro Devices (AMD.US)$On Friday, they became the primary forces supporting the Nasdaq and S&P 500, rising 1.5% and over 2%, respectively. In contrast,$Intel (INTC.US)$ Advanced Micro Devices’ stock plummeted 17% after the chipmaker issued disappointing first-quarter earnings guidance.

Despite the political turmoil surrounding tariff threats this week causing volatility in global markets, U.S. equities remain near historic highs. The market is now focused on the upcoming earnings reports from several tech giants next week, while the Federal Reserve is expected to maintain interest rates unchanged.

The Mag 7 gained over 1% intraday, reversing course this week to outperform the S&P 493 index. Louis Navellier of Navellier & Associates stated:

The stock market is consolidating. Laggards are catching up, while winners are giving back some gains.

Alexander Guiliano of Resonate Wealth Partners noted that many companies within the ‘Mag 7’ have underperformed the S&P 500 index over the past 12 months, making the upcoming earnings reports potential key catalysts.

Daniel Skelly, head of the Market Research and Strategy team at Morgan Stanley Wealth Management, stated:

If these clouds can dissipate, there may be an opportunity for positive sentiment to re-emerge regarding this year’s dominant themes — the ongoing benefits of AI adoption, as well as deregulation and other market-friendly policy measures.

U.S. Treasury trading was relatively muted, with the 10-year yield falling by 1 basis point and the 2-year yield remaining flat. As the market prepares for the Federal Reserve’s rate decision next week, expectations for rate cuts this week have significantly declined, falling far below previous forecasts of two 25-basis-point reductions.

The US Dollar Index plummeted by 0.87% on Friday, marking the largest single-day drop since last August. Non-US currencies surged accordingly, with the British pound appreciating by 1%, and the Japanese yen soaring by 1.6%, recording its biggest one-day gain since last August due topossible intervention by Japanese authorities, which caused it to spike.

Under the sharp decline of the US dollar, precious metal prices continued to soar. Spot gold rose by 1%, approaching $5,000, with a weekly gain of over 8%, marking the largest weekly increase in nearly six years. Spot silver surged by 7%, historically breaking through the $100 mark for the first time.

Rich Privorotsky, head of Goldman Sachs’ Delta-One division, stated:

Clearly, there is speculative money involved, but primarily, gold trading is essentially a game played at the central bank level. This is not a sudden loss of confidence in the US dollar by the market but rather a slow erosion of dollar hegemony.

The Trump administration is adopting a multi-pronged strategy to curb Iran’s influence in the Middle East, with US crude oil rising more than 2%.

The three major U.S. stock indexes closed mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average declining nearly 0.6%. The Consumer Staples ETF led gains among U.S. sector ETFs, rising approximately 0.8%. Apple edged down 0.12%, bringing its weekly decline to nearly 4%, marking its eighth consecutive week of losses—the longest losing streak since May 2022.

U.S. Equity Benchmark Indices:

• The S&P 500 Index rose 2.26 points, or 0.03%, to close at 6915.61 points.

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 285.30 points, or 0.58%, to close at 49098.71 points.

• The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 65.225 points, or 0.28%, to close at 23501.244 points. The Nasdaq 100 Index rose 87.115 points, or 0.34%, to close at 25605.466 points.

• The Russell 2000 Index declined 1.82% to close at 2669.16 points, with a weekly loss of 0.20%.

• The VIX Volatility Index, also known as the ‘fear gauge,’ dropped 7.46% to close at 15.64, with a weekly decline of 1.26%.

U.S. Sector ETFs:

• The Consumer Staples ETF rose 0.78%, the Global Tech Stock Index ETF increased by 0.63%, the Energy Sector ETF gained 0.57%, and the Consumer Discretionary ETF climbed 0.42%.

Mag 7:

• The Mag 7 index rose by 1.09% to 205.25 points, with a cumulative weekly increase of 0.32%.

• Among the constituent stocks, Microsoft gained 3.28%, Amazon rose 2.06%, Meta increased by 1.72%, NVIDIA advanced 1.54%, Tesla dropped 0.07%, Apple fell 0.15%, and Alphabet A declined 0.79%.

Semiconductor stocks:

Chinese concept stocks:

• The Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index closed down 0.26% at 7878.38 points, with a cumulative weekly rise of 2.05%.

• Among popular Chinese stocks, XPeng fell 3.3%, Nio, WeRide, and Alibaba declined more than 2%, while Li Auto, PDD Holdings, and Tencent rose by up to 0.5%.

Other individual stocks:

• Berkshire Hathaway Class B shares fell 1.14%, and Eli Lilly and Co dropped 2.12%.

• $Netflix (NFLX.US)$Adobe rose 0.45%, Salesforce fell 0.02%, Oracle dropped 0.57%, Qualcomm declined 1.25%, and Broadcom fell 1.70%.

European stock markets fell by approximately 1% this week, with the insurance sector dropping over 3.9%, while the oil and gas sector rose by 0.7%, and the raw materials sector surged over 3.8%. Germany’s stock market closed up by less than 0.2%, narrowing its overall weekly decline to less than 1.6%.

Pan-European Indices:

• The European STOXX 600 Index closed down 0.09% at 608.34 points, accumulating a weekly decline of 0.98%.

• The Eurozone STOXX 50 Index closed down 0.13% at 5948.20 points, accumulating a weekly decline of 1.35%.

National indices:

• Germany’s DAX 30 Index closed up 0.18% at 24900.71 points, accumulating a weekly decline of 1.57%.

• France’s CAC 40 Index closed down 0.07% at 8143.05 points, accumulating a weekly decline of 1.40%.

• The UK FTSE 100 Index closed down 0.07% at 10143.44 points, accumulating a weekly decline of 0.90%.

Sector and Stock Performance:

• Among the blue-chip stocks in the Eurozone, Adidas fell 5.71%, Adyen dropped 2.39%, and Saint-Gobain fell 1.86%, marking the third-largest decline.

• Among all the components of the European STOXX 600 Index, Puma plunged 14.11%, B&M European Value Retail fell 7.18%, and Burberry dropped 6.20%, marking the third-largest decline.

• This week, in terms of sectors, the STOXX 600 Insurance Index fell by 3.96%, the Food and Beverage Index dropped by 2.36%, the Personal and Household Goods Index declined by 1.73%, while the Real Estate Index, Financial Services Index, and Industrial Products and Services Index all decreased by 1.60%.

US crude oil rose 3% after reports that Trump attempted to block Iraq’s oil exports.

Crude oil:

Natural Gas:

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Editor/Stephen