The selected companies are from all major U.S. sectors, except utilities and transportation. Many critics argue that the Dow doesn’t truly represent the state of the whole U.S. economy, given that it consists only of 30 large-cap U.S. companies. They believe the number of companies is too small and argue it neglects companies of different sizes. Many critics believe the S&P 500 better represents the economy as it includes significantly more companies.
Dow Closes at Record High as Traders Parse Macro Data
- Nvidia stock whipsawed throughout the day, flipping between losses and gains before ending the day slightly higher, up 0.5% to $146.67 per share.
- Also, any big reversals on the rate of inflation could curtail spending.
- Bitcoin has recently registered its highest trading volumes since mid-March, signaling buying activity from larger market participants, such as institutional investors.
- Their consensus price target of $170 represents upside of about 17% compared to the current price.
- The stock is on track for its third straight positive day and posted a new intraday high, surpassing a level set in June.
- Instead, an independent Wall Street Journal commission decides whether a share is to be included or excluded.
The spinoff will position its remaining assets better for growth, the entertainment giant said. Those include “NBC entertainment, sports, news and Bravo—which all power Peacock—along with Telemundo, the theme parks business, and film and television studios.” Texas Pacific Land, based in West Texas, has a market cap of around $35 billion. The indexes measure the percentage of companies reporting growth, so anything above 50 represents expansion. The manufacturing reading met the Dow Jones estimate while the services index was slightly better than the 55.0 forecast. The flash PMI reading for services moved up to 57.0, a two-point increase from October and the highest reading in 32 months.
That puts the stock on pace for its biggest weekly gain on record. “On the back of strong expected revenue growth in 2025, we maintain our positive How to buy a bot view on the AI compute industry and NVIDIA in particular,” analyst Sundeep Gantori wrote in a Thursday note. “Still, investors should not lose sight of potential risks in 2025, including around the product transition and tariff-related uncertainties.” While tech struggled, bitcoin neared the long-awaited milestone of $100,000.
Comcast Plans to Spin Off NBCUniversal Cable Channels
Projections for Nvidia’s results have also ticked higher, with analysts now expecting third-quarter revenue to grow 84% year-over-year to $33.29 billion, driven by record sales from Nvidia’s data center segment. Comcast shares were up about 1% in late trading Wednesday, narrowing the stock’s year-to-date loss to about 3%. The company forecast revenue of $37.5 billion for its fiscal fourth quarter, above the analyst consensus of $36.9 billion. Nvidia’s revenue gains came as data center revenue, a key figure for Nvidia’s AI ambitions, more than doubled to a record $30.8 billion. That suggests a revenue boost is just being pushed down the road until the issues ease, some analysts suggested, given the dearth of sizable competitors in AI chipmaking.
The stock has gained 65% since the start of the year, handily outpacing the S&P 500’s 23% return over the same period. With 96% of S&P 500 companies having reported earnings, 77% beat profit The Wisdom of Finance estimates by a median of 6%, while 59% beat revenue estimates by a median of 4%, according to data from Fundstrat. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is a stock index of 30 U.S. blue-chip large-cap companies, which has become synonymous with the American stock market as a whole. The index, however, only has 30 companies, and the index is price-weighted, meaning that it doesn’t always present an accurate reflection of the broader stock market.
Traders are now pricing atfx review in a 44% chance of the Fed holding pat at its December meeting, up from about 28% a week ago, per the CME FedWatch tool. Consumer sentiment in November moved lower following the presidential election but was still better than October, according to a closely watched gauge from the University of Michigan released Friday. Mara Holdings, which is the second-largest holder of bitcoin among public companies, was also flat. Bitcoin inched to a new record Friday as investors waited with bated breath for it to hit $100,000. Vistra leads the XLU for the week and the S&P 500 for the year with its more than 300% rise in 2024.
Nasdaq losses accelerate as ‘Magnificent 7’ stocks sink
Investors now have the opportunity to focus on other factors, like the Fed cutting interest rates and the incoming business-friendly Trump administration. US stocks jumped on Friday, with the Dow Jones surging 426 points to a record close as investors’ risk-on trade gained steam. Markets are regrouping after Nvidia’s (NVDA) earnings fell short of definitively settling the question of whether AI would keep boosting stocks. Some of the “Magnificent Seven” tech megacap stocks were under pressure on Friday, also dogged by the potential breakup of Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL). Critics also believe that factoring only the price of a stock in the calculation does not accurately reflect a company, as much as considering a company’s market cap would.
The first large-scale change was in 1932 when eight stocks in the Dow were replaced. Consumer spending has fueled economic growth, despite a persistent squeeze from inflation and high borrowing costs. Inflation has been easing and the Federal Reserve has started trimming its benchmark interest rates. That is likely to help relieve pressure on consumers, but any major shift in spending could prompt the Fed to reassess its path ahead on interest rates.
The survey also showed that consumers’ inflation expectations for the year ahead fell slightly to 2.6%, which is the lowest reading since December of 2020. In the crypto market, bitcoin hovered around $99,000, according to CoinDesk. It has more than doubled this year and first surpassed the $99,000 level on Thursday. Facebook owner Meta Platforms fell 0.7% following a decision by the Supreme Court to allow a multibillion-dollar class action investors’ lawsuit to proceed against the company. It stems from the privacy scandal involving the Cambridge Analytica political consulting firm. Markets have been volatile over the last few weeks, losing ground in the runup to elections in November, then surging following Donald Trump’s victory, before falling again.
Since Donald Trump’s election victory, the cryptocurrency has gained about 35% amid optimism that the incoming administration will establish policies that broadly benefit the asset class. Shares of MicroStrategy (MSTR), one of the world’s largest holders of bitcoin, rose 10% as the cryptocurrency hit another record high. MicroStrategy’s stock price has nearly doubled since the start of the month. The big mover Wednesday was Target (TGT), which plunged 21% after the retailer reported results that came in short of Wall Street expectations on both the top and bottom lines. Shares of TJX Companies (TJX) were up slightly after the parent of discount retailers TJ Maxx and Marshalls released its quarterly results.
After the bell, Nvidia reported earnings per share (EPS) of $0.81 on revenue of $35.1 billion. Analysts were anticipating EPS of $0.74 on revenue of $33.2 billion but shares slipped early in after-hours trading. The stock market surge came amid an ongoing risk-on frenzy for speculative assets, namely bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies.
