Wall Street Momentum Shifts: S&P 500 Erases Weekly Losses, Nasdaq 100 Ends 4-Week Slide

Wall Street Momentum Stalls After Thursday's Rally, Palantir Jumps To 3-Year Highs, Bonds Rally: What's Driving Markets Friday? - Akamai Techs (NASDAQ:AKAM)

Long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds saw renewed demand, pushing yields down by 6 basis points. After a blistering Thursday that saw the S&P 500 close with its best session in nearly two years -- up 2.3% -- Wall Street's price action turned sluggish on a Friday lacking market-moving economic events. By midday in New York, major indices were slightly positive or hovering around the flat line, signaling a slowdown in the bullish sentiment compared to the previous session. Since the beginning of the week, the S&P 500 is down 0.5%, with a few hours of trading left to determine whether the U.S. stock market can avoid closing in the red for the fourth consecutive week. Meanwhile, there's a renewed demand for long-dated U.S. Treasury bonds, with yields declining by about 6 basis points on both the 10-year and 30-year notes. As a result, the popular iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT rallied 1%, snapping a three-session losing streak. The dollar slightly weakened, slipping 0.5% against the Japanese yen after three consecutive days of gains. Traders now see nearly equal odds of a 50-basis-point or a 25-basis-point rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. In commodities, oil is up 0.7%, with West Texas Intermediate (WTI) light crude poised for its third consecutive session of gains. Bitcoin BTC/USD plunged 2% after rallying nearly 12%, marking its best-performing day since February 2022. Friday's Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs According to Benzinga Pro data: The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.2% to $531.66. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA was flat at $394.74. The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ inched 0.2% higher to $448.94. The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM fell 0.5% to $205.88. The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV outperformed, up by 0.4%. The Industrial Select Sector SPDR Fund XLI lagged, down by 0.2%. Friday's Stock Movers Palantir Technologies Inc. PLTR climbed 1.5%, building on the previous day's 11% surge following the announcement of a partnership with Microsoft Corp. MSFT to deliver advanced cloud, artificial intelligence, and analytics capabilities to U.S. defense and intelligence agencies. Shares of Palantir are on track to close at the highest level since February 2021. Eli Lilly & Co. LLY surged over 6% after several investment banks raised their price targets, following a strong earnings report last quarter. Cisco Systems Inc. CSCO declined over 1% after revealing plans for thousands of job cuts, marking its second round of layoffs this year, as the company redirects its focus toward fast-growing sectors such as cybersecurity and artificial intelligence, Reuters reported. Stocks reacting to company earnings are: Akamai Technologies, Inc. AKAM up 10%, CarGurus, Inc. CARG up 18%, Dropbox, Inc. DBX up 2.3%, elf Beauty, Inc. ELF down 15%, Evergy Inc. EVRG down 0.7%, Expedia Group, Inc. EXPE up 9%, Five9, Inc. FIVN down 26%, Gilead Sciences, Inc. GILD down 3%, Insulet Corporation PODD down over 7%, New Fortress Energy Inc. NFE down 26%, Paramount Global PARA up 0.5%, Take-Two Interactive Software, Inc. TTWO up 2.5%, Trade Desk, Inc. TTD up 9.7%, Unity Software Inc. U up 11%, Yelp Inc. YELP up 2.6%. Read Now: Wall Street Shifts To 'Bossing The Fed Into Big Rate Cuts' After Bank Of Japan's Policy U-Turn, Analyst Says Photo: Shutterstock Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs

S&P 500 Erases Weekly Losses, Nasdaq 100 Ends 4-Week Slide As Bulls Regain Momentum: Friday's Stock Movers At The Close - Akamai Techs (NASDAQ:AKAM), Expedia Group (NASDAQ:EXPE)

Interest rate markets now show a 50-50 chance of a 25- or 50-basis-point rate cut in September, reflecting a sharp reassessment. The S&P 500 index rose 0.4% to close at 5,344 points on Friday, notching its second consecutive day of gains and fully wiping out the weekly losses in what initially appeared to be a sharply bearish and volatile week. On Monday, the S&P 500 opened more than 5% lower than the previous Friday's close as recession fears reverberated through the markets. Bulls then regained momentum in the aftermath of a panicked Monday, bolstered by a series of positive catalysts that calmed volatility and alleviated economic fears. On Wednesday, the dovish stance of the Bank of Japan curbed short-covering flows into the yen, halting the unwinding of the carry trade that was dangerously draining liquidity from riskier assets. On Thursday, lower-than-expected weekly jobless claims reassured investors that concerns over a rising unemployment rate in July might have been overblown, as temporary factors likely played a role. The Nasdaq 100, as tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, rose 0.6% to 18,513 points on Friday, ending the week up 0.4% and snapping a four-week losing streak. On Thursday, Richmond Fed President Tom Barkin confirmed that fears of labor market layoffs might be exaggerated, noting that his business contacts report neither significant hiring nor firing activity. Boston Fed President Susan Collins suggested that it may soon be appropriate to start easing monetary policy if economic data continues as she expects. Interest rate markets now assign a 50-50 probability to either a 25-basis-point or 50-basis-point rate cut in September, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. This marks a sharp reassessment, as traders had fully priced in the larger rate cut at the beginning of the week amid recession fears. Friday's major gainers in the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY were: Friday's top performing stocks within the Nasdaq 100 index were: Read Next: Wall Street Shifts To 'Bossing The Fed Into Big Rate Cuts' After Bank Of Japan's Policy U-Turn, Analyst Says Illustration generated using artificial intelligence via MidJourney. Market News and Data brought to you by Benzinga APIs