Dow narrowly hits new record amid strong week for stocks

US stocks closed mixed on Friday, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) narrowly surpassing 42,000 points again to set a new record.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) closed down 0.2%, just below its all-time high.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) fell 0.4%.

Major stock averages ended the week higher, with much of the gains coming from a big surge on Thursday.

Intel (INTC) shares surged on Friday afternoon after The Wall Street Journal reported that semiconductor giant Qualcomm recently approached the chipmaker about a possible acquisition. Qualcomm (QCOM) shares fell nearly 3%.

Intel (INTC) shares rose more than 7% on Friday afternoon after The Wall Street Journal reported that semiconductor giant Qualcomm (QCOM) recently approached the company about a potential acquisition.

Qualcomm shares fell 4% following the headline.

Laura Bratton of Yahoo Finance reports:

One former Snap (SNAP) employee thinks the company’s augmented reality glasses are “bad.”

Sterling Crispin, an engineer who previously worked on the glasses, slammed the product in a tweet this week on his former Twitter handle, formerly known as “X.”

“I’ve been working on this at Snap for about a year now, and there’s been a ton of negative feedback about the experience and the device,” Crispin wrote about Snap’s AR spectacle, “but I think this product speaks for itself, and is just plain bad.”

Click here for more details.

Jennifer Schonberger of Yahoo Finance reports:

The lone opponent of a bigger Fed rate cut said that with inflation still below the central bank’s 2% target, “a smaller first move in this process would have been the preferable step.”

“We believe there is a risk that the Committee’s larger policy actions could be interpreted as a premature declaration of victory for our price stability mandate,” Federal Reserve Governor Michelle Bowman said in a statement Friday.

“We are not yet on our inflation target.”

Click here for more details.

Lennar (LEN) CEO Stuart Miller believes lower interest rates and calming inflation will boost confidence in a struggling housing market after the Federal Reserve’s 50 basis point interest rate cut.

“Low interest rates and subdued inflation are making home affordability easier, putting more families in position to buy their first home or trade up,” Miller said during the company’s third-quarter earnings call.

His comments came after Lennar said Thursday that home orders and home sales gross profits for the third quarter ended Aug. 31 fell short of analysts’ expectations. Lennar shares fell 4% on Friday following the news. The SPDR S&P Homebuilders ETF (XHB) was down 1%.

Rising mortgage rates and home prices over the past few years have dampened homebuying enthusiasm. Mortgage rates peaked at about 7% earlier this year but have now come down significantly. The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage fell about 0.1 percentage point to 6.09% on Thursday, down from 6.2% last week, according to Freddie Mac.

Meanwhile, the Federal Reserve cut interest rates this week and has signaled its intention to cut rates two more times this year.

“Strong demand enabled by incentives and lower mortgage rates has driven the new home market over the past two years, but we believe the demand cycle will become stronger and more broad-based as interest rates fall,” the executive added.

From Edwin Roman of Yahoo Finance:

Many companies, including Target (TGT), Ulta Beauty (ULTA), and Macy’s (M), are increasingly shifting their focus to smaller stores.

Small stores are scaled-down versions of big box stores, offering consumers an efficient, convenient, and local shopping experience. According to RJ Hottovy, head of analytics and research at Placer.ai, there are several reasons retailers pursue a small store strategy:

Click here for more details.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose on Friday afternoon, remaining near an all-time high.

Major stock averages opened slightly lower on Friday morning after the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow closed at all-time highs.

By about 1:00 pm ET, stocks had recouped some of the morning’s losses, but the S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) were still in decline territory.

Dan Howley of Yahoo Finance reports:

Apple’s (AAPL) iPhone 16 and iPhone 16 Pro lineups launch on September 20th and feature a number of updates that may make it worth upgrading if you’re using an older iPhone: a new camera button, improved camera performance, larger screens on the Pro models, and better battery life overall.

I’ve been using both the iPhone 16, which starts at $799, and the iPhone 16 Pro, which starts at $999, for some time now, and anyone switching from an older iPhone will appreciate the improvements in the new smartphones. But the biggest upgrade to Apple’s latest iPhones is the company’s Apple Intelligence platform.

Click here for more details.

Trump Media & Technology Group (DJT) shares fell to a new low on Friday as the company’s six-month lockup period expired.

As of Thursday, former President Donald Trump and other shareholders were allowed to sell their shares in the social media company for the first time since it went public in March.

Trump, who owns more than half of the company, recently said he has no plans to sell his stake.

“I have no intention of selling,” Trump told reporters at a news conference last week. “I like to sell. I use it as a way to get my message across.”

The company’s stock has been volatile and often moves in tandem with Republican presidential candidates, falling 5% on Friday.

In market action on Friday, Utilities (XLU) rose 1.5%, while other sectors were flat or down.

Technology (XLK) shares fell 0.9% after fueling the market’s larger gains in the previous trading session.

On Friday, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) both fell from their all-time highs.

Jennifer Schonberger of Yahoo Finance reports:

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has not backed down on his criticism of the Federal Reserve following its massive half-percentage point interest rate cut less than two months before the November election.

“This is really a political move,” the former president said in an interview with Newsmax on Thursday.

Click here for more details.

Constellation Energy (CEG) shares soared to an all-time high on Friday after the company announced plans to restart the Three Mile Island (TMI) nuclear reactor and sell the power to Microsoft (MSFT) data centers.

Wall Street had expected Constellation to strike a deal this year with one of the big tech companies seeking more energy to run their technology infrastructure amid an artificial intelligence boom.

Constellation purchased TMI’s Reactor 1 in Pennsylvania in 1999. The reactor is located next to Reactor 2, which was shut down after a partial meltdown in 1979.

“TMI Unit 1 is a completely standalone facility and its long-term operations were not affected by the Unit 2 incident,” Constellation said in a statement on Friday.

Before Unit 1 was shut down for economic reasons in 2019, the plant had a generating capacity of 837 megawatts, enough to power more than 800,000 residential homes, according to the company.

Constellation Energy shares rose 15% on Friday. The company’s shares are up more than 100% this year.

Shares of sneaker and sports apparel giant Nike (NKE) soared on Friday after the company announced that CEO John Donahoe will step down and be replaced by Elliot Hill, Nike’s former president of consumer and marketplaces, effective Oct. 14.

Wall Street analysts welcomed Hill’s return after he left Nike in 2020, and the company’s shares rose more than 7% in early trading.

The leadership changes come as Nike’s board of directors, which includes founder Phil Knight, longtime CEO Mark Parker and Apple CEO Tim Cook, believes the company is better placed to focus on improving its product and rebuilding its relationship with Florida-based Foot Locker, which Donahoe dumped, according to Yahoo Finance’s Brooke DiPalma.

Click here for more details.

Stocks were down slightly at the open on Friday, pulling back from all-time highs for the S&P 500 (^GSPC) and Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI).

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite Index (^IXIC) also fell after surging in the previous trading session following the Federal Reserve’s big interest rate cut.

Market enthusiasm faded on Friday after delivery giant FedEx (FDX), a gauge of the U.S. economy, reported disappointing quarterly results on Thursday night.

FedEx shares fell sharply in early trading.