U.S. stocks rallied on Friday to close out a strong week on optimism over the health of the economy and path of interest rates as investors braced for a slew of policy changes under the incoming Trump administration.
The S&P 500 and Dow Industrials registered their biggest weekly percentage gains since early November and the Nasdaq recorded its best since early December. Data this week allayed fears that inflation would resurge while expectations have grown that the Federal Reserve will bump up the timing and magnitude of rate cuts this year.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 334.70 points, or 0.78%, to 43,487.83, the S&P 500 gained 59.32 points, or 1.00%, to 5,996.66 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 291.91 points, or 1.51%, to 19,630.20. Tesla Motors, NVIDIA rose 3%.
Market Movers
Quantum stocks tumbled on Friday as QUANTUM CORP fell 15%, Rigetti Computing fell 13%, Quantum Computing Inc. fell 10%, D-Wave Quantum Inc. fell 9%.
Bitcoin rejoined the crypto rally on Friday amid reports that President-elect Donald Trump could soon release an executive order making crypto a national priority. Bakkt Holdings, Inc. rose 11%; MARA Holdings soared 9%; MicroStrategy up 8%; Coinbase Global, Inc. up 5%.
Hot Chinese ADRs and ETFs jumped on Friday. JD.com rose 10%; Direxion Daily FTSE China Bull 3X Shares rose 6%; PDD Holdings Inc, NIO Inc. rose 5%; Alibaba rose 3%.
Drone maker companies tumbled. PALLADYNE AI CORP slumped 16%, Red Cat Holdings Inc. dropped 15%, SES AI Corp fell 11%.
Apple gained 0.8%. Analysts at Evercore ISI said they were optimistic heading into the iPhone maker's quarterly earnings report, saying that "services should remain strong and we think iPhone sales will continue to improve as we move through the fiscal year." Shares of Apple dropped 4% on Thursday to $228.26, the stock's lowest close since Nov. 18, and its largest daily percentage decrease since Aug. 5.
Meta Platforms, Inc. rose 0.2% and Alphabet gained 1.6% after the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a bipartisan law that would ban TikTok nationwide on Sunday. Meta launched its own short-form video product, Reels, on Instagram and Facebook in 2020 and 2022, respectively.
Qorvo jumped 14% after activist investor Starboard Value amassed a 7.7% position in the company, which makes radio-frequency chips for connectivity in Apple iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and other wireless devices.
U.S.-listed shares of Novo-Nordisk A/S fell 5.3% after the U.S. government named 15 drugs that will be subject to the second round of price negotiations by Medicare, including the Danish pharmaceutical company's Ozempic and Wegovy drugs.
JB Hunt Transport Transport Services declined 7.4% after fourth-quarter revenue fell 5% to $3.15 billion, just topping analysts' estimates of $3.13 billion, on lower revenue per load, excluding fuel surcharge revenue, across the company's intermodal and truckload segments. Shares of competitor Old Dominion Freight Line fell 0.2%.
Rivian Automotive, Inc. declined 1.6%. The electric-vehicle maker said it closed a loan agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy for up to $6.6 billion to support construction of a new manufacturing facility in Georgia. Rivian said the loan would help create 7,500 new manufacturing jobs and accelerate production of the company's new R2 SUV and R3 crossover.
Cloudflare, Inc. rose 2% to $117.16 after Citi analysts upgraded shares of the cloud computing company to Buy from Neutral and raised their price target on the stock to $145 from $95.
Market News
US to Take Extraordinary Steps to Avert a Default, Yellen Says
Outgoing Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said her department will start taking special accounting maneuvers as of Jan. 21 to avoid breaching the US debt limit, and urged lawmakers again to take steps to increase or suspend the statutory ceiling.
Yellen wrote in a letter to bipartisan congressional leaders Friday she was advising them “of the extraordinary measures that Treasury will begin using on January 21.” That will be a day after the Biden administration leaves office. “I respectfully urge Congress to act promptly to protect the full faith and credit of the United States.”
The letter marks the second notification in the latest tussle over the debt limit, which kicked back in as of Jan. 2, and likely the last for Yellen before the Trump administration takes office Jan. 20. Congress had suspended the ceiling in 2023 after a close-fought battle by lawmakers to avert a default on federal obligations. The limit is currently set at about $36 trillion.
Intel Gains Amid Takeover Speculation; Musk Mentioned
Intel rose 9% after some vague takeover speculation about the chipmaker.
A report from SemiAccurate was circulating on Friday about a company looking to acquire Intel (NASDAQ:INTC). According to a Citi note, Elon Musk was mentioned as a potential buyer behind the paywall of SemiAccurate.
"We view this as a poor outcome for Intel unless it was able to hire a CEO who would exit the merchant foundry business ...." Citi analyst Christopher Danely wrote in a note on Friday.
Intel didn't immediately respond to Seeking Alpha's email request for comment.
Moderna Gets $590 Million from US to Study Bird Flu Vaccine
Moderna, Inc. Inc. was awarded an additional $590 million from the US government to help the company develop a vaccine aimed at protecting people from bird flu.
The funding will support late-stage development and licensing of pre-pandemic vaccines and expansion of human studies for up to five additional subtypes of pandemic influenza, according to a statement Friday.
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