Wall Street's main indexes finished lower, with 10 out of 11 categories of stocks in the benchmark S&P 500 closing in the red led by financials, real estate, technology and consumer staples. Energy stocks ended higher. All three indexes notched their second straight week of losses.
U.S. Treasury yields rose on Friday after a stronger-than-expected jobs data reinforced expectations that the Federal Reserve will likely keep interest rates elevated for longer than traders were betting on.
Market Snapshot
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 1.63% to 41,938.45, the S&P 500 fell 1.54% to 5,827.04 and the Nasdaq Composite fell 1.63% to 19,161.63.
Market Movers
Nvidia dropped 3% following a Bloomberg report that said the Biden administration plans to impose a final round of chip-export restrictions before leaving office. The plan would see U.S. allies given free rein to import chips but block imports by unfriendly countries such as China and Russia, according to Bloomberg, which cited people familiar with the matter.
Fellow chip makers also fell. Broadcom fell 2.2%, while Advanced Micro Devices sank 4.8% after it was downgraded to Neutral from Buy at Goldman Sachs.
Edison International fell 6.5%. As of Friday afternoon, Edison was the S&P 500's worst stock in 2025. The power producer dropped 10% on Wednesday after the company's Southern California Edison subsidiary began shutting off power to some customers in California in an effort to help curb the multiple fires in Los Angeles. Edison said it doesn't serve the Palisades area, where one of the largest fires occurred. However, it has some infrastructure around the sites of the Hurst and Eaton fires and has been reviewing the incidents.
Allstate, Travelers, and Chubb likely will be the publicly traded insurers most exposed to losses from the L.A. fires, according to analysts at J.P. Morgan, who estimated economic losses from the fires at about $50 billion, with insured losses estimated at $20 billion or more. Allstate dipped 5.6%, Travelers fell 4.3%, and Chubb declined 3.4%.
Mercury General tumbled 20%. The L.A. wildfires likely will leave the insurer covering hundreds of millions of dollars worth of losses. Mercury General has high exposure to California -- it has a 6.1% share of the homeowners insurance market in the state, and nearly 80% of its premiums of $4.6 billion last year came from California.
Constellation Energy jumped 25% after reaching a deal to acquire privately held Calpine for $26.6 billion, including the assumption of debt. The acquisition creates the nation's largest clean-energy provider.
Rigetti Computing ended 11% lower, D-Wave Quantum fell 5.4%, and IonQ gained 6.9% following sharp losses for the quantum-computing stocks earlier in the week. The shares tumbled after Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang said "very useful quantum computers" were decades away.
Alan Baratz, CEO of D-Wave Quantum, said on Wednesday that his company's services were being used by clients such as Mastercard "not 30 years from now, today." Baratz said Huang's remarks were "just the latest in a string of misinformation on quantum computing unfortunately driving market reaction."
Delta Air Lines rose 9% after the carrier's fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of $1.85 a share beat analysts' estimates of $1.76. The company said it expects a strong 2025.
Walgreens Boots Alliance surged 28%. The drugstore chain reported fiscal first-quarter adjusted earnings of 51 cents a share, beating Wall Street estimates of 38 cents. Its sales of $39.5 billion topped forecasts of $37.4 billion. The company also maintained its fiscal 2025 outlook.
Constellation Brands declined 17% after the distributor of Mexican lager reported fiscal third-quarter earnings and sales that missed Wall Street estimates and trimmed its fiscal-year guidance. The company cited "subdued spend and value seeking behaviors" among customers, starting in the second quarter and continuing into the third. Constellation also reported that its wine and spirits division continues to struggle, with net sales falling by 14% in the third quarter.
Market News
Russell 2000 confirms correction as rate-cut hopes fade
The economically sensitive Russell 2000 small-cap index closed down more than 10% from its most recent November high on Friday, commonly known as correction territory, as investors scaled back expectations for rate cuts by the Federal Reserve following a strong jobs report.
The benchmark index dropped 2.22% to 2,189.23 points on the session, a drop of 10.35% from its recent closing high of 2,442.03 hit on Nov. 25.
Meta, Amazon scale back diversity programs ahead of Trump inauguration
Facebook owner Meta Platforms and Amazon.com are winding down diversity programs ahead of Republican Donald Trump's return to the U.S. presidency as conservative opposition to such initiatives grows louder.
Some of America's biggest businesses have been scaling back their diversity initiatives, years after pushing for more inclusive policies in the wake of protests against the police killings of George Floyd and other Black Americans in 2020.