Overview of Wall Street Performance
Wall Street finished nearly flat on Friday in a volatile session ahead of the long weekend, with all three major indices recording weekly losses as the fourth-quarter earnings season began.
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: Decreased by 0.17% to 49,359.33 points
- S&P 500: Dropped by 0.06% to 6,940.01 points
- Nasdaq Composite: Declined by 0.06% to 23,515.39 units
During the week, the S&P 500 fell by 0.38%, Nasdaq dropped by 0.66%, and the Dow declined by 0.29%.
Sector Performance
Healthcare stocks fell 0.8%, leading the declines among S&P 500 sectors, while chipmaker stocks rose, with a semiconductor index gaining 1.2% and extending Thursday’s gains.
Major banks reported mostly strong results as they began the S&P 500 earnings reporting period; however, bank and financial institution stocks have been pressured by concerns over U.S. President Donald Trump’s proposal to cap credit card interest rates at 10% for a year. The S&P 500 financial sector ended up 0.1% on Friday but suffered its largest weekly percentage decline since October.
Market Reactions to Trump’s Statements
Investors absorbed news that Trump might want to keep economic advisor Kevin Hassett in his current role, reducing market bets that Hassett would succeed Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.
“Ending the week virtually unchanged, with the S&P 500 just shy of 7,000, most investors will take it as a victory two weeks after the new year began,” said Anthony Saglimbene, chief investment strategist at Ameriprise Financial.
“Another reason markets have stalled is that we’re at the beginning of the earnings season,” added the market analyst.
Mexican Stock Market Performance
Back-to-back weekly gains:
Mexico’s stock exchanges closed higher on Friday, helping both register gains for a second consecutive week.
- S&P BMV/IPC: Rose by 0.74% to 67,141.11 points
- FTSE-BIVA: Ended up 0.86% at 1,332.07 units
Telecommunications giant América Móvil led the day’s gains, with a 2.79% increase to 18.06 pesos, followed by the airport group OMA, which added 2.60% to 240.55 pesos.
On a weekly basis, the IPC climbed 1.63%, while the FTSE-BIVA advanced nearly 2%. Both indicators reached their latest closing records on Wednesday of the previous week.
So far this month, both markets have shown returns exceeding 4%.
