Stock market today: Live updates

The Dow is on pace to post its worst weekly performance since October.

The blue-chip index is down about 0.9% on the week. If that holds through close, it will be the 30-stock average’s worst week since late October. During that week, the Dow slipped 2.1%.

Crude oil futures posted a weekly loss as lackluster demand out of China collided with a market that the International Energy Agency views as well supplied.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for April fell 92 cents, 1.2%, to settle at $78.01 a barrel on Friday. The Brent contract for May dropped 88 cents, or 1.1%, to settle at $82.08 a barrel.

U.S. crude and the global benchmark lost 2.45% and 1.8%, respectively, for the week.

“The big burst of China demand recovery continues to just not pan out and without it, it’s going to be hard for these prices to sustain themselves and recover further and get WTI back above 80 bucks,” John Kilduff, founding partner at Again Capital, told CNBC.

— Spencer Kimball

The S&P 500 is on track to end the week higher. If that holds, it will have been up 17 in the last 19 weeks, a first for the broad index since 1964.

— Lisa Kailai Han, Nick Wells

The three major indexes were mixed entering the last hour of the trading day and week.

On the day, the Dow is the only index on pace for gains. The index was up 0.3%, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.2% and 0.5%, respectively.

For the week, the S&P 500 was the sole average tracking for gains, higher by around 0.2%. The Dow and Nasdaq were each about 0.5% in the red.

— Alex Harring

Technology stocks were among the biggest winners and losers within the Dow this week.

The 30-stock index was on track to end the week down 0.8%. It was hurt in part by drops of more than 3% in tech stocks Salesforce and Apple, the two worst performing members. Retailer Nike also weighed on the average with a slip of 3%.

But on the other end of the spectrum, IBM was poised to post the best performance of Dow members this week with an advance of nearly 4%. Cisco was the next biggest gainer, adding more than 2.5%.

— Alex Harring

Investors may want to consider taking some profits in Nvidia despite is long-term AI growth potential, according to Greg Bassuk, chief investment officer at AXS Investments.

“Nvidia’s leadership status in this space supports more room for the stock to rise in the months ahead,” he said. “However, investors would be prudent to consider some Nvidia profit-taking, as well as investments that provide Nvidia downside exposure so as to profit from the Nvidia pull-back.”

Nvidia pulled back 4% during Friday’s session, but headed for a 6% weekly gain and its ninth straight winning week as bets on artificial intelligence show no signs of waning.

The company’s played a pivotal role in the continuation of 2023’s AI-fueled rally, and that hasn’t gone unnoticed. Year to date, the company’s accumulated more than $1 trillion in market capitalization and is responsible for roughly 60% of the S&P 500’s price gains year to date, according to FactSet data. It has also accounted for 70% of the Nasdaq 100’s 2024 wins.

“As Nvidia propelled the S&P 500 to a new record close this week, both Wall Street and Main Street have been witnessing Nvidia’s central role in moving the markets and the averages,” Bassuk said.

Nvidia shares have rallied more than 76% year to date and 261% over the last year.

— Samantha Subin

These are the stocks making the biggest moves during midday trading:

• Nvidia — Shares fell nearly 5%, as Nvidia took a breather from its winning streak. Earlier in the session, the stock notched a new 52-week high.
• Marvell Technology — The chip company sank more than 10% on light first-quarter earnings and revenue guidance.
• Costco — The stock slipped 7% after the warehouse club reported revenue of $58.44 billion for its fiscal second quarter, below the $59.16 billion consensus estimate, per LSEG.

Read the full list of stocks on the move here.

— Samantha Subin

The S&P 500 flickered around its flatline for the week as its 11 sectors diverged.

On one hand, utilities and materials led the index higher this week, with the sectors gaining more than 3% and 2%, respectively. Real estate and consumer staples also gave the broad index upward momentum, as each added more than 1%.

But drops among a handful of sectors mitigated those advances. Most notably, consumer discretionary was the worst performing sector with a slide of more than 2%.

— Alex Harring

Nvidia shares rolled over during midday trading, falling more than 4% and giving back earlier gains.

The move in Nvidia shares comes as the chipmaker heads for an 8% weekly gain and its ninth straight winning week. The company’s been responsible for helping fuel the continuation of 2023’s rally into the new year.

Other semiconductor stocks also pulled back during Friday’s session. Advanced Micro Devices was last down 1.6%, while ASML and Intel slumped more than 4% each. Broadcom dropped 7% after issuing in-line full-year guidance. Marvell Technology shed 10% on a weaker-than-expected outlook for the first quarter.

The VanEck Semiconductor ETF (SMH) was last down 3.6%.

— Samantha Subin

Small-cap stocks as measured by the Russell 2000 Index have outperformed large-cap counterparts (S&P 500) since the market low on Oct. 27 by more than 2 full percentage points.

Through Thursday’s close, small-caps have climbed 27.36% since late Oct. vs 25.26% for the S&P 500.

“The Russell 2000 had a ‘breakaway’ move on Thursday, gapping up for the fourth time since February 13,” wrote Larry Jeddeloh of The Institutional Strategist on Friday. Despite smallcaps’ outperformance, the iShares Russell 2000 ETF “still trades at a major valuation advantage to large caps. The valuation gap between U.S. large caps and small caps is mirrored in a number of other markets, including Australia,” he noted. “[I]t’s all about large caps – until it isn’t. The same theme is true in the U.S. and European markets.”

Eli Lilly shares are down more than 2% in trading after the Food and Drug Administration said it would continue to review the safety and effectiveness of the company’s Alzheimer’s treatment. The news came as a surprise and it’s hard to gauge the length of the delay, but analysts said it won’t hurt Lilly’s 2024 forecast.

“In our view this is an incremental negative surprise, but we would view any weakness in LLY as a buying opportunity given Donanemab is not the key driver of the stock,” said Morgan Stanley’s Terence Flynn in a research note.

The bad news for Lilly is good news for Biogen. Flynn said he could see BIIB shares jumping as much as 5% on the news as the delay will give it more time to capture market share with its rival treatment Leqembi. Indeed, Biogen shares were up more than 2% on Friday morning, but the stock is down nearly 13% year to date.

—Christina Cheddar Berk

Among the fund’s top holdings, Enphase Energy and Solaredge Technologies both jumped more than 3%.

This would be the third straight positive session for TAN, which rose more than 2% on each of the previous two days.

— Jesse Pound

Apple advanced on Friday, putting the key technology name on pace to snap its longest losing streak in over two years.

The mega-cap stock rose about 1.5% in late morning trading. If that holds, it would mark the equity’s first positive day in the last eight. The last time the stock has fallen for seven consecutive sessions was in January 2022.

Friday’s move offers modest relief amid a rough period for Apple, with shares down around 11% in 2024.

— Alex Harring, Nick Wells

Nvidia had another good week.

That’s no surprise for the chipmaker that’s rallied nearly 300% over the last year on its artificial intelligence potential.

The AI darling appeared to separate itself from the pack this week, surging 17% for its best weekly performance since May 2023. Meanwhile, the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) looks poised to finish the week slightly lower.

Nvidia also outperformed its Magnificent 7 peers, and is one of only two stocks in the group — along with Meta Platforms — slated to cap off a positive week.

As Nvidia rallied, Tesla sank 11% and Alphabet declined 1.7%. Apple shed 5% and notched its longest losing streak in over two years. Software stocks also underperformed, with MongoDB, Palo Alto Networks and Zscaler on pace for weekly declines exceeding about 6%.

The February jobs report released this morning may have appeared strong at first glance, but a closer look reveals “disturbingly weak” data, according to Academy Securities.

Nonfarm payrolls rose by 275,000 last month, far surpassing the payrolls growth expectation of 198,000 from economists polled by Dow Jones.

However, a slight rise in the unemployment rate, as well as sizable downward revisions in data from the past two months, suggests the labor market is weaker than investors previously thought, according to Peter Tchir, head of macro strategy at Academy Securities.

Other troubling signs include a decline in hourly earnings. Tchir also noted that the “quit” rate in the Job Openings and Labor Turnover Survey (JOLTS) data earlier this week implies workers “don’t think it is easy to find another job.”

All this suggests the jobs market is “slightly ‘below normal'” and “heading the wrong direction” at a time when consumer delinquencies is rising, Tchir said. The development could be “weak enough” to add downside pressure to equities, he added.

“[What] initially looked like ‘good’ news is actually mediocre, at best,” Tchir wrote in a Friday note titled “A Disturbingly Weak Report.” “How the markets treat that news remains to be seen, but I’m expecting a mediocre response, regardless of the fact that today’s data will help the Fed lean towards cuts.”

— Sarah Min

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite opened Friday’s session in the green.

The broad S&P 500 added around 0.1% shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq climbed 0.2%. The Dow, meanwhile, flickered around its flatline.

Following Friday’s open, both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are on track to finish the week with gains of 0.6% and 0.3%, respectively. The Dow has lagged, down around 0.7% on the week.

— Alex Harring

These are some of the companies making headlines before the bell:

• Carvana — Shares gained more than 5% after RBC upgraded the stock to sector perform from underperform. The firm cited a reasonable valuation and a favorable setup for unit acceleration. 
• MongoDB — Shares fell more than 8% after the company issued disappointing first-quarter and full-year guidance Thursday. Meanwhile, MongoDB beat fourth-quarter expectations. The database software maker posted adjusted earnings of 86 cents per share on revenue of $458 million. Analysts had called for earnings of 47 cents per share and $433 million in revenue, according to LSEG. 
• DocuSign — The stock rallied 8.4% after the company beat expectations and gave positive first-quarter guidance. DocuSign reported fourth-quarter adjusted earnings of 76 cents per share on revenue of $712 million for the period. According to analysts surveyed by LSEG, Wall Street had expected earnings of 64 cents per share on $699 million in revenue.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

The U.S. economy added 275,000 jobs last month, easily beating a Dow Jones consensus estimate of 198,000. Such a figure would raise concern over the possibility of a delay in Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

However, the U.S. unemployment rate ticked higher to 3.9% from 3.7%. On top of that, wages grew at a slower-than-expected pace. Jobs growth for January was also revised sharply lower to 229,000 from 353,00.

— Fred Imbert

With just Friday’s session left in the trading week, the three major indexes are on pace to show diverging weekly performances.

The S&P 500 is up 0.4% on the week. The Nasdaq Composite is slightly below flat, while the Dow has underperformed with a 0.8% drop.

— Alex Harring