Stocks were struggling for direction on Friday, as investors tried to make sense of another set of so-so Big Tech earnings.
Futures tracking the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 143 points, or 0.3%, and contracts tied to the S&P 500 were flat, after both indexes rebounded to hit record closing highs on Thursday. Nasdaq 100 futures were 0.2% lower.
The gauges were probably moving in different directions because of Broadcom, which is in the S&P 500 and Nasdaq 100 but not the Dow. Its shares sank 4.5% in late trading, following a fourth-quarter earnings call in which analysts questioned the chip maker’s sales forecasts and future margins.
Wall Street’s risk appetite looked pretty solid other than that. Bitcoin, the large-cap cryptocurrency that tends to be a leading indicator for investor sentiment, was up 2.3% to $92,250 over the past 24 hours. It’s a sign that stocks could carry on chugging higher next week, the final full trading week of 2026.
“I do very much get the vibe that the majority of market participants have now ‘checked out’ for the year,” Pepperstone strategist Michael Brown said, pointing to thinner volumes. “Against that backdrop, we tend to just see markets take the ‘path of least resistance,’ which is arguably the best way to sum up yesterday’s trade–stocks recovering after an early wobble.”
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note climbed 1 basis point to 4.17% on Friday. The dollar was flat against a weighted basket of its peers, and gold ticked up 0.3% to $4,328 an ounce.