US stocks notch first weekly boost this year before Trump’s inauguration, executive orders
Medora Lee
Wall Street closed higher on Friday, pushing stocks to their first weekly advance this year, ahead of Donald Trump’s profitability to the White House.
President-elect Trump’s inauguration is Monday, and his first days are expected to be filled with a flurry of executive orders.
“Reports recommend 100 or more,” wrote Morgan Stanley analysts in a update. Any signals of how Trump’s proposed tariffs would be implemented would be carefully watched, they said.
Morgan Stanley economists still ponder the Federal safety net could lower profit rates at its March policy conference after cooler worth rise data earlier this week, but noted “sooner and higher-than-expected tariffs can receive March off of the table.”
Bitcoin gained 4.95%, closing in on $105,000, in expectation of a feasible first day order by Trump. It was last at $104,949 on reports that Trump could release an executive order making crypto a national priority as soon as his recent term begins. Crypto-related shares like Coinbase and Robinhood rose, too.”
The broad S&P 500 index closed up 1% at 5,996.71; the blue-chip Dow gained 0,77%, rising to 43,487.52; and the tech-heavy Nasdaq jumped 1.51% to 19,630.20.
Shares of social media giants Facebook and Instagram owner Meta and YouTube parent Alphabet advanced after the Supreme Court upheld a law that could ban TikTok if its Chinese parent corporation doesn’t sell it. Trump reportedly is considering an executive order to stop the ban. Meanwhile, Meta and Alphabet closed higher because they may be among the companies that could advantage from a TikTok ban, analysts said.
The standard 10-year Treasury profit firmed to 4.615%.
Sizing up markets heading into inauguration Monday
U.S. stocks notched their first weekly boost this year, with the S&P 500 and Dow logging their biggest weekly gains since November. The Nasdaq put in its best week since December.
“The U.S. macro backdrop at the instant, at least per December’s data, is one that points to the ‘best of all worlds’ – higher employment, falling core worth rise (which excludes the volatile food and vigor sectors), and a powerful buyer,” said Michael Brown, elder research strategist at Pepperstone, which offers buying and selling services. “Not a impoverished inheritance for President-elect Trump to pick up on Monday.”
On Friday morning, December industrial production and capacity utilization both easily beat expectations. Industrial production, which measures factory output, rose 0.9% and capacity utilization, which measures how efficiently resources are used, improved to 77.6%.
On a technical basis, stocks also look bullish, said Larry Tentarelli, chief technical strategist for stable investment Daily pattern update.
So-called sentiment indicators — bullish or bearish — at extreme levels are “fairly reliable contrarian indicators,” Tentarelli said, and bullish sentiment for stocks currently is at the lowest level since the November 2023 major S&P 500 lows in November 2023. This should bode well for stocks, he said.
“Investors tend to be most bullish at trade highs and most bearish near trade lows,” he said.
Corporate information
Corporate information continues to garner attention. Some of the day’s biggest movers were:
- Tesla shares added 3% on hazard-taking Tesla founder Elon Musk will buy TikTok. Earlier reports suggested ByteDance was considering a TikTok sale to Musk, who owns X and is a Trump friend.
- J.B. Hunt’s shares dropped more than 7% after the transport corporation reported profits below analysts’ forecasts.
- Intel distribute jumped more than 9% amid takeover hazard-taking.
- Schlumberger distribute gained 6% after the oil giant beat fourth-quarter profits forecasts, benefiting from higher demand for its drilling equipment and technology in North America and international markets.
- Truist monetary shares rose 6% after the corporation said its fourth-quarter profits rose as it earned more in profit payments.
- Trump Media shares gave back early gains to complete down 2.37% ahead of Trump’s inauguration.
- Novo Nordisk distribute fell more than 5% after the drug maker’s weight-deficit drug Wegovy and diabetes medicine Ozempic landed on Medicare’s list of the next 15 drugs to face worth negotiations.
(This narrative was updated with recent information.)
Medora Lee is a money, markets, and expense management reporter at USA TODAY. You can reach her at [email protected] and subscribe to our free Daily Money newsletter for expense management tips and business information every Monday through Friday morning.
