AI-Summary – News For Tomorrow
U.S. stocks neared all-time highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 just 0.3% from its record. The Dow and Nasdaq also saw gains. Wall Street experienced a calm week after recent volatility. SoFi Technologies fell after announcing a $1.5 billion stock offering. The market’s potential return to record levels would signify resilience against concerns like interest rates, AI investment, and cryptocurrency fluctuations. Investors favor lower rates but worry about inflation remaining above the Fed’s target. Treasury yields climbed, with global markets mixed; Germany and South Korea gained, while Japan’s Nikkei fell due to weak household spending data and hints of interest rate hikes.
News summary provided by Gemini AI.
The U.S. stock market rose to the edge of its all-time high on Friday.
The S&P 500 added 0.2% and finished just 0.3% shy of its record closing level, which was set in October. It had briefly topped the mark during the day, before paring its gain.
The Dow Jones industrial average added 104 points, or 0.2%, and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.3%.
The modest moves capped a quiet week for Wall Street, offering a respite following weeks of sharp and scary swings.
Also on the losing end of Wall Street was SoFi Technologies. The financial technology company fell 6.1% to $27.78 after saying it would add $1.5 billion worth of its stock into the market in order to raise cash. It’s selling the stock at a price of $27.50 per share.
All told, the S&P 500 rose 13.28 points to 6,870.40. The Dow Jones added 104.05 to 47,954.99, and the Nasdaq composite gained 72.99 to 23,578.13.
If the S&P 500 does return to a record, it would mark the latest time the U.S. stock market has powered past what seemed to be a debilitating set of worries. Most recently, those concerns centered on what the Federal Reserve will do with interest rates, whether too many dollars are flowing into artificial-intelligence technology and if sharp drops for cryptocurrencies would bleed over into other markets.
Investors love lower interest rates because they boost prices for investments and can juice the economy. The downside is that they can worsen inflation, which is stubbornly remaining above the Fed’s 2% target.
In the bond market, Treasury yields climbed. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.13% from 4.11% late Thursday.
Germany’s DAX returned 0.6%, and South Korea’s Kospi jumped 1.8% for two of the world’s bigger gains.
Tokyo’s Nikkei 225 fell 1.1% after data showed household spending in Japan fell 3.0% in October from a year earlier. It was the sharpest drop since January 2024. Japanese markets have been shaky recently after the Bank of Japan hinted that hikes to interest rates may be coming.
Choe writes for the Associated Press.
