By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) – The main U.S. indexes rose on Friday, as Treasury yields slipped from the week’s high and relieved the pressure on megacaps, and investors awaited quarterly results from some of Wall Street’s biggest companies next week.
The yield on the benchmark 10-year Treasury note dipped to 4.19% after rising as high as 4.26% earlier in the week.
The so-called Magnificent Seven group of rate-sensitive stocks gained in early trading. Meta Platforms was up 1.1%, Amazon.com gained 1.5%, while Nvidia advanced 1.2%.
Tesla’s shares rose 3.1%, adding to a 22% surge in the previous session as investors cheered the EV-maker’s strong sales forecast, which helped the benchmark index register its first daily advance of the week.
Shares of Apple reversed premarket declines and were last up 0.5%.
“The upward move in yields has paused for a bit, allowing the stock market to catch its breath and focus on company earnings, which by and large have been pretty good,” said Ross Mayfield, investment strategist at Baird.
The week starting Oct. 28, the final stretch before the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, promises to be crucial for Wall Street. This is when results from megacap technology firms including Alphabet , Apple and Microsoft are also due, along with the nonfarm payrolls report for October.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 167.26 points, or 0.39%, to 42,541.62, the S&P 500 gained 39.11 points, or 0.67%, to 5,848.97, and the Nasdaq Composite gained 208.46 points, or 1.13%, to 18,623.95.
The Russell 2000 index, tracking the economically sensitive small-caps, was up 0.5%.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow looked set to snap their six-week winning streaks, with equities unsettled by the rapid rise in yields as Fed rate-cut bets unraveled on expectations of a stronger economic outlook.
Meanwhile, Capri Holdings slumped 44.8% after a U.S. judge blocked a pending merger between the company and handbag maker Tapestry. Shares of Tapestry rose 12.5%.
Regional lender New York Community Bancorp dropped 8% after reporting its fourth straight quarter of loss, primarily due to its commercial real estate loans.
Memory-chip-maker Western Digital’s shares leapt 8.8% after it topped quarterly profit estimates on Thursday, while health insurer Centene advanced 11.9% after beating estimates for third-quarter profit.
A mixed set of earnings across sectors and continued uncertainty around the U.S. election have also made investors cautious, though markets have started pricing in a second Donald Trump administration in recent weeks.
“We’re so close to the election that it does feel like markets are in a bit of a holding pattern,” Mayfield said.
Data showed September Durable Goods orders slipped 0.8%, less than the 1% forecast. The Boston Fed’s Susan Collins is scheduled to speak on the day. [FED/DIARY]
Investors are still pricing in another 25-basis-point rate cut at the U.S. Federal Reserve’s November meeting. They expect about two rate cuts by the end of the year, according to LSEG data.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.51-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.14-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 48 new highs and 33 new lows.
(Reporting by Lisa Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal in Bengaluru; Editing by Pooja Desai and Saumyadeb Chakrabarty)
