By Echo Wang
(Reuters) – U.S. stocks closed out the trading week near the unchanged mark in a subdued session on Friday, with the S&P 500 and Dow posting weekly declines, while the Nasdaq secured its fourth consecutive week of gains.
Broadcom forecast quarterly revenue surpassing Wall Street expectations and predicted robust growth in demand for its custom AI chips over the next few years. The optimistic outlook propelled the company’s shares 24% higher, pushing its market capitalization past $1 trillion for the first time.
Chip stocks were mixed, with Broadcom rival Marvell Technology rising 10.8%, while AI bellwether Nvidia closed 2.2% lower. But a gauge of semiconductor stocks added 3.2%.
Yields on U.S. Treasuries rose across the board, with ones on the benchmark 10-year bond hitting a three-week high.
“Right now the interest rate selloff is winning,” said Jay Hatfield, chief executive officer at Infrastructure Capital Management in New York. “It’s pretty natural for value and income stocks to go down when tech stocks are rising.”
Technology stocks continued their upward momentum, driving the Nasdaq above the 20,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday. The rally was further bolstered by an in-line inflation report, which solidified expectations for a 25 basis-point interest rate cut from the Federal Reserve in its meeting next week.
Trader bets on the cut at the central bank’s Dec. 17-18 meeting stand at near 97%, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool. However, they indicate chances of a pause in January.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 86.06 points, or 0.20%, to 43,828.06, the S&P 500 lost 0.16 point, or 0.00%, to 6,051.09 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 23.88 points, or 0.12%, to 19,926.72.
Wall Street had taken a breather in the previous session after recent gains and some hot economic data ahead of the Fed’s meeting, setting up the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow for weekly losses. However, the Nasdaq ended the week higher.
U.S. stocks have repeatedly reached all-time highs this year, driven by surging interest in heavyweight tech companies capitalizing on artificial-intelligence trends.
Investor sentiment also received a boost following Donald Trump’s presidential election victory, as markets anticipate his pro-business policies could enhance corporate profitability.
Among other movers, RH jumped 16.95% after the home furnishings retailer reported higher net revenue for the third quarter, while D.R. Horton eased 0.89% as J.P. Morgan downgraded its rating on the homebuilder to “underweight.”
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 2.23-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 100 new highs and 141 new lows on the NYSE.
The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 15 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 75 new highs and 199 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 12.56 billion shares, compared with the 14.03 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
(Reporting by Echo Wang in New York; Additional reporting by Purvi Agarwal and Shashwat Chauhan in Bengaluru; Editing by Maju Samuel and Matthew Lewis)
