Weekly Stock Market Recap – August 9, 2024

Stocks Rise for 2nd Straight Day to Close Out Volatile Week of Trading

Stock finished higher on Friday to wrap up a week in a which major indexes recorded both their best and worst days since 2022 amid wild swings in technology stocks and concerns about the health of the U.S. economy.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both added 0.5%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 0.1%. It was the second straight day of gains for the indexes but not enough to put them into the green for the week following steep losses in previous sessions. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq are now riding four-week losing streaks, while the Dow has lost ground for two consecutive weeks.

Mega-cap tech stocks closed mostly higher Friday, with Alphabet (GOOGL), Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), Meta Platforms (META), Microsoft (MSFT) and Tesla (TSLA) gaining.

The only ‘Magnificent Seven‘ member to lose ground Friday was AI investor favorite Nvidia (NVDA), which slipped 0.2% as chip stocks fell broadly. Intel (INTC) dropped 3.8% and was the biggest Dow decliner, while the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX) shed 0.6% after surging 7% the previous session.

Eli Lilly (LLY) rose 5.5% and was among the big S&P 500 gainers for the second straight day after the pharmaceutical giant reported quarterly results that blew past analysts’ expectations thanks to the strength of sales of its its weight loss drugs Mounjaro and Zepbound.

The top advancer on the S&P 500 was Akamai Technologies (AKAM), which jumped 11% after the company reported better-than-expected results and raised its profit guidance on higher demand for its security and cloud computing products. 

The calendar for earnings reports and economic data was light on Friday, ahead of the releases next week of monthly inflation and retail sales numbers, as well as quarterly results from Walmart (WMT) and Home Depot (HD). Investors will be watching the numbers closely for indications on the state of the economy, amid expectations that the Federal Reserve will soon start cutting interest rates.

The yield on 10-year Treasurys slipped to 3.94% on Friday, after jumping to around 4% Thursday for the first time in a week. The yield had fallen below 3.7% on Monday, after the July jobs report last Friday showed a surprising increase in the unemployment rate, which boosted expectations among market participants that the Fed would have to cut its benchmark rate swiftly and deeply to address economic weakness.

Gold futures were up slightly at around $2,470 per ounce on Friday, while bitcoin was around $60,500, after surging above $61,500 overnight for the first time in a week. (Investopedia)