Wall Street Today: DJIA, S&P 500 Rise as AMAT, CSCO and NKE Gains Beat AAPL, NVDA and V Losses
The Nasdaq Composite eased Friday for a fourth straight session, but the S&P 500 and Dow-30 rose slightly as strength for large caps like Applied Materials, Nike and Cisco outweighed weakness for Nvidia, Apple, Visa and other big names.
The $Nasdaq Composite Index (.IXIC.US)$ fell 50.48 points (0.2%) to a 22,546.67 close, but the $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ added 48.95 ticks (0.1%) to 49,500.93 and the $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ rose 3.41 points (0.05%) to 6,836.17.
Macro
All three indexes had been seen bigger gains earlier Friday, but retrenched as losses for big stocks like $Visa (V.US)$ (3.1% weaker), $Apple (AAPL.US)$(2.27% lower) and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ (off 2.21%) tamped things down.
All three are DJIA and S&P 500 components, while Nvidia and Apple belong to the Nasdaq Composite as well.
Such big-cap declines tempered gains for other large names like $Applied Materials (AMAT.US)$, which added 8.1% following well-regarded quarterly results late Thursday. An S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite member, AMAT even hit an all-time intraday high earlier in the session.
Meanwhile, $Applovin (APP.US)$ (6.4% stronger), $Cisco (CSCO.US)$(up 2.5%) and $Astera Labs (ALAB.US)$ (2.2% better) partly rebounded after falling Thursday on poorly received earnings. (ALAB had sunk for two straight days after reporting results Tuesday evening.)
And beyond Big Techs, non-tech Dow components $Nike (NKE.US)$ (up 3.3%), $UnitedHealth (UNH.US)$ (3.1% stronger) and $Disney (DIS.US)$(3% firmer) rose on Friday as well.
In economic news, the U.S. Consumer Price Index showed American inflation running at a 2.4% annual rate in January, down from 2.7% in December and lower than the 2.5% economists had forecast.
While still above the Federal Reserve's 2% target, the tamer January reading improved the odds that central bank will cut its benchmark Fed Funds rate in a bid to strengthen the U.S. economy without goosing up excess inflation.
Wall Street generally likes Fed rate cuts because lower interest rates tend to reduce bond and money-market yields, historically pushing more money into stocks in search of better returns (and thus boosting equity prices).
However, lower rates can also weaken the U.S. dollar, so Friday's calmer inflation numbers helped send dollar hedges like gold, silver and cryptocurrencies higher.
$Gold Futures (APR6) (GCmain.US)$ rose 2.1% to $5.054.20 an ounce at last check on the New York Comex, while $Silver Futures (MAY6) (SImain.US)$ added 1.7% to $76.995 per ounce.
Similarly, $Bitcoin (BTC.CC)$ added 5.2% to $68,867.44 as of shortly before 4:30 p.m. New York time, while $Ethereum (ETH.CC)$ rose 7% to $2,051.85, $Solana (SOL.CC)$gained 10.2% to $84.87 and $Ripple (XRP.CC)$improved by 4.2% to $1.41.
Moo-vers
The "Magnificent Seven" stocks followed the tech-heavy Nasdaq Comp's lead and mostly fell on Friday.
$Apple (AAPL.US)$and $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ led the Mag-7's decliners with their previously noted pullbacks of 2.27% and 2.21%, respectively.
Other Mag-7 names to lose ground included $Meta Platforms (META.US)$ (off 1.6%), $Alphabet-A (GOOGL.US)$ (1.1% weaker), $Amazon (AMZN.US)$ (down 0.4%) and $Microsoft (MSFT.US)$ (which gave up 0.1%).
Elsewhere on Wall Street, Friday's noteworthy percentage gainers included:
-- $Rivian Automotive (RIVN.US)$, which soared 26.6%. The electric-vehicle maker rallied after guiding 2026 sales to 62,000-67,000 units vs. about 42,000 in 2025. RIVN also reported a Q4 revenue beat and a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss, while red ink for 2025 as a whole came in lower than 2024 levels.
-- $Fastly (FSLY.US)$, 13.8% stronger Friday and up 113.1% for the week. The edge-cloud firm rallied after releasing well-regarded results Wednesday evening.
-- Select crypto-related stocks, which rose on a combination of cryptocurrencies' Friday strength and well-received results Thursday night for $Coinbase (COIN.US)$. COIN rose 16.5% after its adjusted earnings beat analyst estimates, making up for a slight revenue miss and a worse-than-expected GAAP loss. Other crypto stocks to rise in apparent sympathy included $Strategy (MSTR.US)$ (up 8.9%), $Robinhood (HOOD.US)$ 6.8% better), $Circle (CRCL.US)$ (6% stronger), $Bitmine Immersion Technologies (BMNR.US)$ (which added 6.2%) and $IREN Ltd (IREN.US)$ (5.5% firmer).
Conversely, Friday's major percentage decliners included:
-- $Pinterest (PINS.US)$, down 16.8%. The social-media firm fell as Q4 revenues and Q1 guidance disappointed Wall Street. Shares even hit an all-time low earlier in the session.
-- $Grab Holdings (GRAB.US)$, 3.3% weaker. The Asian super app sank in a delayed response to Wednesday night's earnings miss and poorly received forward guidance.
Disclaimer: This presentation is for informational and educational use only and is not a recommendation or endorsement of any particular investment or investment strategy. Indexes are unmanaged and cannot be directly invested in. Past performance is no indication of future results. Investing involves risk and the potential to lose principal. Investment information provided in this content is general in nature, strictly for illustrative purposes, and may not be appropriate for all investors. It is provided without respect to individual investors' financial sophistication, financial situation, investment objectives, investing time horizon, or risk tolerance. You should consider the appropriateness of this information regarding your relevant personal circumstances before making any investment decisions. Past investment performance does not indicate or guarantee future success. Returns will vary, and all investments carry risks, including loss of principal.
Disclaimer: Community is offered by Moomoo Technologies Inc. and is for educational purposes only.
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Jerry Kronenberg
Director of Financial Content
Former top editor at Seeking Alpha, Fidelity.com, TheStreet.com and UPI.
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affable Blobfish_403 : The data shows the economy is doing well, but the overly eager anticipation of a large rate cut suggests the economy isn't in great shape.
Slay2dudes : ok