Indexes

A quiet Friday delivered fresh records without much breadth to back them. The S&P 500 added 0.42% to close at 7,575.39, the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.29% to 26,281.61, and the Dow gained 149.60 points to 52,637.01, capping a choppy week that swung on Middle East headlines but ended with the major averages higher. The lift was top-heavy: Nvidia rose about 3% and Meta climbed 6.85%, and between them the two carried a tape where most sectors finished flat to lower. Underneath the megacaps, the Russell 2000 edged up 0.13% to 2,977.81 and stayed capped below 3,000, a reminder that the small-cap crowd sat out the AI trade that moved the index. The session's marquee event was SK Hynix, whose $26.5 billion Nasdaq listing became the largest US IPO ever by a foreign company and closed roughly 13% above its offer price, a vote of confidence in the memory chips that feed the AI build-out.

Sector Heat Map

The advance ran through a narrow lane, with communication services and technology doing the work while the defensive corners drifted lower.

Growth beat safety cleanly: the two groups housing the AI winners led, while utilities, real estate and staples lagged as the bid moved toward risk.

In the News

Rates, FX, Commodities

Softer crude pulled a little more inflation risk out of the market, and the long end of the curve led a second straight day of easing while the front end sat still. The dollar kept its recent range, and gold firmed as buyers treated the metal as a hedge against both the AI melt-up and the still-live Middle East file.

Technicals

With a second record in hand, the broad-index charts carry no overhead resistance. At 7,575.39 the benchmark is stretched well beyond both its 20- and 50-day lines, and buyers would first look to defend 7,540, then the round 7,500 handle. The Composite notched its own high, keeping the June breakout zone intact on the chip bid. Treasuries firmed a second day: the 10-year yield at 4.53% has slipped off the 4.60% ceiling tested Wednesday, and a daily close under 4.45% would open room toward the June lows, while the 2-year at 4.14% keeps hugging its Fed-pinned range. The clearest single-stock signal came from Meta, which broke out of a multi-week base to a fresh high on the news it will build its own AI accelerator. Its hourly chart below shows the gap open and the steady climb that held all session.

META, Meta Platforms (hourly): a gap to record ground on the in-house chip news, with the advance holding into the close.

Breakouts & Breakdowns

Breakouts

Meta Platforms (META) — cleared a multi-week base to a record on the Iris chip plan, up 6.85%; with no resistance overhead, the prior high now becomes first support.

Nvidia (NVDA) — climbed roughly 3% back above its 50-day average, though the May peak of $235.74 still sits well overhead as the level to reclaim.

Breakdowns

Delta Air Lines (DAL) — slipped roughly 2% despite an earnings beat, unable to hold recent highs as the fuel-cost line spooked buyers; the 50-day average is the next support to defend.

Utilities (XLU) — the sector fund fell 0.5% and continues to leak as money rotates toward growth; a close below its 50-day would put the spring range back in view.

NVDA, Nvidia (daily): a 3% gain back above the 50-day, still short of the May record.

Levels, Revisited

A first look back at the week's Breakouts & Breakdowns calls and where they stand as the week ends.

Micron's (MU) $930 shelf, reclaimed Thursday, held and pressed higher as chips led again Friday.

AMD stayed above the June range it cleared Thursday, riding the same memory bid.

Boeing's (BA) Monday breakout into multi-month-high ground held through the week's chop.

Goldman Sachs (GS) drifted back toward the record level it cleared Monday as banks marked time before Tuesday's reports.

Amgen (AMGN) never recovered the 50-day it lost Monday; health care was the week's soft spot.

Exxon Mobil (XOM), flagged Thursday for losing the $150 line, has not reclaimed it, firming 0.7% to about $138 but still in the lower range.

Top Movers

Gainers

SK Hynix (SKHY) made its Nasdaq debut and closed near $168, roughly 13% above the $149 price on its American depositary shares, after raising about $26.5 billion in the largest US listing ever by a foreign company. The order book was several times oversubscribed, and the pop reflects how badly US investors wanted direct exposure to the high-bandwidth memory that SK Hynix supplies for Nvidia's accelerators. Its reception sets a marker for the appetite behind the AI memory trade that the rest of the group will be measured against.

Meta Platforms (META) jumped 6.85% and posted its best week since early 2024 after confirming it will put a custom AI chip, code-named Iris, into production in September to supplement the Nvidia and AMD hardware it already buys. The market read the move as a way to bend a capital-spending curve that could reach $145 billion this year, since in-house silicon designed with Broadcom and built by Taiwan Semiconductor lowers Meta's cost per unit of computing over time. Whether the savings show up before the spending does is the question the next earnings call will have to answer.

Nvidia (NVDA) added roughly 3% as the single largest weight in the S&P 500, doing much of the index's heavy lifting even as it remains some 16% below its May peak of $235.74.

Losers

Delta Air Lines (DAL) fell about 2% even though its adjusted profit of $1.56 a share beat the $1.48 consensus and revenue rose 14% on an adjusted basis to $17.67 billion, because the airline paid $3.93 a gallon for jet fuel, up 75% from a year earlier, and fares only covered about 60% of that increase. Management reinstated full-year guidance of $6.50 to $7.50 a share and guided third-quarter earnings to $2.00 to $2.50, a steady outlook that the fuel-cost headline overshadowed. As the first major carrier to report, Delta sets the read on travel demand, and the takeaway is that pricing power is real but the fuel bill is eating into it.

Key Macro Data Today

Friday's calendar was light, with the consumer read the only release that moved the conversation.

The improvement leaned on cheaper gasoline and calmer Middle East headlines, and the dip in inflation expectations gives the Fed's patient camp a small talking point before Tuesday's price data lands.

Notable Earnings This Session

One marquee report carried Friday's docket; everything around it was quiet.

Pre-Open

Delta Air Lines (DAL) opened the airline season with a beat and a reinstated outlook that the fuel line overshadowed (see Top Movers). The signal for the group is that full fares are holding, but cost inflation is doing real work on the margin.

Post-Close

Nothing of note reported after the bell. The next wave arrives Tuesday, when the big banks report alongside the June inflation reading.

Drivers

1. June CPI is Tuesday's main event, and it arrives with the Fed already split. Economists look for headline prices to fall 0.1% on the month, pulling the annual rate down to about 3.7% from 4.2%, while core is seen firmer at 0.3%. A soft headline hands the patient camp cover; a hot core keeps the hike talk that Kalshi traders have been pricing near coin-flip odds very much alive.

2. Bank earnings open Tuesday with JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and Citigroup, the first hard read on credit and the consumer this season. Loan-loss reserves and net interest income will matter more than the headline profit, since they show whether households are still current and whether higher-for-longer rates are helping or hurting the lenders.

3. SK Hynix trades its first full week starting Monday, and the follow-through is the tell on the AI memory trade. A debut that holds its gains says the demand behind the listing is durable; a fade would suggest Friday's pop was scarcity and hype rather than conviction. The offer price of $149 is the line the stock now defends.

SPY (daily): the broad-market tracker prints a second straight record on a narrow, chip-led advance.

QQQ (daily): the large-cap tech tracker rides its AI leaders to fresh highs.