Oct 26, V7N- The Nasdaq ended higher on Friday, buoyed by megacap shares, as investors anticipated quarterly results from major companies next week. Tesla's stock rose by 3.36% after a remarkable 22% surge the previous day due to a positive sales forecast. Other tech giants, including Amazon, Apple, and Microsoft, also experienced gains.

Brian Jacobsen, chief economist at Annex Wealth Management, noted, "Tesla numbers helped rekindle some optimism among investors that the Magnificent Seven rally is not over." This refers to the group of rate-sensitive tech stocks that have soared on enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, with Nvidia gaining and briefly surpassing Apple as the world's most valuable company.

In contrast, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell by 259.96 points (0.61%) to 42,114.40, while the S&P 500 lost 1.74 points (0.03%) to close at 5,808.12. The Nasdaq Composite gained 103.12 points (0.56%) to finish at 18,518.61. The decline in the Dow was attributed to falling banking shares, with Goldman Sachs down 2.27%, and fast-food chain McDonald's, which faced an E. coli outbreak linked to its hamburgers, down 2.97%. Regional lender New York Community Bancorp dropped 8.26% after reporting its fourth consecutive quarterly loss, mainly due to issues with commercial real estate loans.

As investors remained cautious due to uncertainty surrounding the upcoming U.S. election, there was a rapid rise in Treasury yields this week, weighing on the stock market. The benchmark 10-year Treasury note yield edged higher as investors awaited U.S. employment data for clues about potential Federal Reserve interest rate cuts.

For the week, only the Nasdaq recorded gains, rising 0.16%, while the S&P fell 0.96% and the Dow sank 2.68%. Analysts commented on the Fed's possibly premature dovish stance, with some forecasting another 25-basis-point rate cut at the Fed's November meeting and two rate cuts by the end of the year.

Next week is pivotal for Wall Street, with earnings reports from major tech firms like Alphabet, Apple, and Microsoft expected, alongside the October U.S. nonfarm payrolls report. Paul Eitelman, chief investment strategist for North America at Russell Investments, highlighted the significance of the upcoming week, stating, "Next week looms large with five of the Magnificent Seven stocks reporting and a host of tier-one economic releases spanning the third quarter."

In notable stock movements, Capri Holdings plummeted 48.89% after a U.S. judge blocked its merger with handbag maker Tapestry, which saw a 13.54% increase in its shares. Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.56-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, with the S&P 500 recording 30 new 52-week highs and the Nasdaq Composite seeing 78 new highs against 87 new lows. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 11.54 billion shares, slightly above the 11.28 billion average over the last 20 trading days.

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