S&P 500 Falls Short of Record High; Dow Falls; Trump Tariffs; Intel, Nvidia, Moderna, Airbnb, More Movers
The stock market left investors wanting more on Friday, after the S&P 500 closed short of a record high for the second day in a row.
The S&P 500 ended the day flat, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 0.4% and the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.4%.
Friday’s performance, however, wasn’t anything to complain about. The S&P 500 snapped its two-week losing streak, and much of the stocks in the index ended the day with gains.
Lower yields likely fueled some of the rally. The yield for the 10-year Treasury declined 0.049 percentage point to 4.475%.
Lower yields means bonds that are being sold in the secondary market are now more expensive. Bond prices marked their third straight week of gains on Friday, their longest streak since Dec. 6, 2024. Higher bond prices push investors into the stock market.
“The present momentum is more than sufficient to get 10-year yields back below the 4.38% mark seen earlier in February,” wrote Ian Lyngen, rate strategist at BMO.
The latest sales data, released Friday, slowed things down. The reading showed that January sales declined by 0.9%, more than economists tracked by FactSet expected and worse than December’s 0.7% gain.
A slowdown in consumer spending isn’t good for Wall Street’s valuations models, which are mostly based on expected future cash flows that companies generate.
Next week, investors may want to keep an eye on ongoing geopolitical tensions.
Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday morning, Vice President JD Vance lambasted European politicians for not controlling the flow of immigrants, especially asylum seekers. Attendees had expected to hear Vance speak about Ukraine and Russia.
More news, however, may come soon: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has signaled that he’s prepared to talk with Russia.
“Clearly, to get to an agreement, all sides are going to have to give something, so Ukraine will not be entirely happy with the Trump team’s forthcoming peace proposal, but neither will Russia,” wrote Chief Economist Stephen Stanley at Santander. “And, so far, Russian officials, including President Putin, have shown zero inclination to compromise from their outlandish maximalist demands.”
