- US stocks closed lower Friday, marking the worst week for the S&P 500 since mid-April.
- A global IT outage caused by a Crowdstrike update exacerbated Friday's stock market decline.
US stocks closed lower on Friday, capping off the worst week for the S&P 500 since mid-April.
The decline on Friday extended the trend of smaller-cap stocks outperforming large-cap peers, which was initially sparked by a cooler-than-expected June inflation report last week.
Friday's decline in stock prices was exacerbated by a global IT outage that plagued computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system.
The IT outage was caused by a bug contained in a CrowdStrike update, and it ultimately led to canceled and delayed flights, bank outages, and more widespread disruption.
Crowdstrike said it identified the issue and was deploying a fix. Shares of the cyber-security provider plunged about 10%.
Investors got their first glimpse of earnings this week, with major banks like Goldman Sachs reporting solid results on Monday.
Netflix reported better-than-expected revenue, profits, and subscriber growth in its second-quarter earnings report on Thursday, but the stock fell about 2% due to somewhat weak third-quarter guidance.
According to data from Fundstrat, 13% of S&P 500 companies have reported second-quarter earnings results. Of those companies, 81% are beating profit estimates by a median of 4%, while 61% are beating revenue estimates by a median of 3%.
In the week ahead, investors will have a close eye on mega-cap tech earnings results from Tesla and Alphabet, the June Core PCE inflation data, and the second-quarter GDP print.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. closing bell on Friday:
- S&P 500: 5,505.00, down 0.71%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 40,287.53, down 0.93% (-377.49 points)
- Nasdaq composite: 17,726.94, down 0.81%
Here's what else happened today:
- Investors are preparing for the Trump trade. Here's how a red wave in November could impact stocks, bonds, and commodities.
- Nvidia is expected to reveal on its upcoming earnings call just how much profits its end-customers are making with its AI chips.
- A recession could strike the US economy in 2025, according to economist Steve Hanke, who warned about the troubling trend in money supply.
- Shares of Serve Robotics soared 241% after Nvidia disclosed a $4 million stake in the company.
- SunPower stock plunged 73% this week as the residential solar company paused some operations amid a decline in demand for solar panels.
In commodities, bonds, and crypto:
- West Texas Intermediate crude oil was down 3.15% to $78.74 a barrel. Brent crude, the international benchmark, declined 2.75% to $82.77 a barrel.
- Gold fell 2.23% to $2,401.60 per ounce.
- The 10-year Treasury yield rose three basis points to 4.24%.
- Bitcoin increased 5.26% to $67,344.