Dow surges 500 points Friday, but index posts back-to-back weekly losses

U.S. equities finished higher on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.43% to end the session at 7,674.37. The Nasdaq Composite also gained 0.43% to finish at 26,180.45, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 517.80 points, or 0.98%, to close at 53,277.01.

— Sean Conlon

The health care sector is headed for its best week since June 26 after Moderna and Merck said its mRNA treatment was successful in in its late-stage clinical trail on Wednesday.

The Health Care index has risen more than 4% in the past week, compared with a 7.9% increase from June 26.

The companies announced the treatment helped to block the return or spreadofmelanoma, a severe type of skin cancer, for over 1,000 patients.

Shares of Moderna swung higher by more than 9% on Friday afternoon, while Merek shares were up more than 2%.

— Ananya Chetia

Information technology has shed more than 3% over the last five days, putting the S&P 500 on track to finish the week ending August 21 in the red.

Amkor Technology and Credo Technology are among the biggest laggards dragging down the tech sector. They have fallen nearly 15% and 11% over the past five days, respectively. Meta Platforms was last down almost 7% over the same period, adding to the losses in tech.

The utilities and industrials sectors also declined, bringing down the broad-market index on a weekly basis.

The S&P 500 was last trading 1.4% lower week to date.

— Liz Napolitano

Tesla shares are on pace for their best week since May as a series of developments around the EV maker’s robotaxi business helped lift investor sentiment. The stock jumped roughly 5%, marking Tesla’s strongest weekly advance since early May.

The rebound comes after investor showed concerns over declining auto profits, heavy spending on AI and the pace of its robotaxi rollout.

But this week investors got some relief after The Information reported that the electric vehicle maker is preparing for an August launch of its Cybercab, a robotaxi without a steering wheel. Autonomous robotaxi rides are currently being offered to some areas in Miami, Orlando and Tampa, Florida, and Austin, Dallas and Houston, Texas.

Tesla stock price

Tesla received another boost this week after Nevada Transportation Authority commissioners approved its application to operate an autonomous vehicle network in Clark County, which is home to Las Vegas.

Just last month, Tesla had reported weaker-than-expected earnings for the quarter even as revenue topped estimates. The EV maker expects its capex spending to go over $25 billion for this year.

On top of that, Tesla was supported by its huge bitcoin holdings, as the cryptocurrency was pacing for a weekly gain of 23%.

— Deena Zaidi

Stocks tied to bitcoin and the broader crypto space were headed for big weekly gains, boosted by a surge in bitcoin as the Trump administration pushes for lawmakers to pass the Clarity Act.

Here’s how some of the biggest stocks in the crypto space are doing this week:

• Strategy: +29%, headed for best week since April 17
• Coinbase: +25%, on pace for best week since May 16, 2025
• Mara Holdings: +21%, on track for biggest weekly gain since Nov. 22, 2024
• Circle Internet: +22%, on pace for best week since March 6
• Robinhood: +13%, on pace for biggest weekly advance since July 2

— Fred Imbert

Here are some of the most notable stock moves this week:

• Moderna: The biotechnology stock pacing for its best week on record after its rally of more than 170% on Wednesday.
• Klarna: The financial technology stock is on pace for its worst week ever with a slide of more than 30%.
• TJX Companies: The retailer is down more than 7% this week, pacing for its biggest weekly decline since 2021.
• Walmart: The nation’s largest grocer is on track for its worst week since 2022 with a drop of roughly 11%.

— Alex Harring and Nick Wells

Long-dated Treasury yields rose once more on Friday, but the news isn’t all that bad for investors, according to Mona Mahajan, head of investment strategy at Edward Jones.

The yield on the 30-year Treasury bond last traded at 5.273%, up more than 3 basis points Friday after touching the highest level since 2007 earlier this week. Bond prices and their yields move inversely to one another.

The 30-year Treasury yield in the past five trading days

Higher yields make fixed income more compelling compared to stocks, which can put downward pressure on equity markets, Mahajan said. They also raise borrowing costs for consumers.

“Perhaps the silver lining is that for savers, or for those in retirement or near retirement or just looking for income, higher Treasury yields may provide that income opportunity,” she said.

“In addition, from the perspective of the Federal Reserve, higher yields also mean that the market is doing some form of tightening for the Fed,” she added.

— Darla Mercado

Check out some of the companies making the biggest moves midday:

• Moderna– The biotech stock resumed its winning ways on Friday, popping more than 10%. Shares surged nearly 177% on Wednesday after a cancer vaccine fromMerckand Moderna showed positive results in a late-stage trial. Moderna shares took a breather on Thursday as investors locked in gains and sold the stock, pushing it down almost 24%. Merck last traded up 2%.
• InnovAge– The senior care services provider jumped 2%. KeyBanc upgraded shares to overweight from sector weight after analysts met with management and visited one of InnovAge’s centers. “We believe INNV’s turnaround is complete, yet there remain significant opportunities to optimize operations and accelerate growth,” wrote analyst Matthew Gillmor.
• Parsons– The tech provider with a focus on national security jumped 4% after Baird lifted its price target to $57 from $48 and upgraded the stock to outperform from neutral. The new price target suggests about 24% upside.

Read here for the full list.

— Scott Schnipper

Retail stocks are on track to end their marquee earnings week in the red.

The State Street SPDR S&P Retail ETF (XRT) joined the broader market’s rebound on Friday, rising nearly 1% in midday trading. But the fund was still down more than 1% on the week.

The XRT, 5-day

Advance Auto Parts and Walmart led the fund lower, plunging around 25% and 11% week to date on the back of earnings reports. If those losses hold, it would mark the biggest weekly losses for Advance Auto and Walmart since 2023 and 2022, respectively.

But Dillard’s and Chewy helped cap losses for the fund, with each stock climbing more than 8% this week.

— Alex Harring

Ken Griffin of Citadel in a letter to clients on Friday addressed for the first time the firm’s purchase of assets from Leopold Aschenbrenner’s Situational Awareness hedge fund.

According to a letter obtained by CNBC’s Sara Eisen, Griffin told clients that Citadel has unwound more than 80% of the aggregate risk from the original portfolio purchased by conducting more than 100 block trades over $4 billion in market value.

Griffin detailed in the letter that Citadel entered discussions with Situational Awareness to acquire some of the fund’s holdings on July 29. One day later, CNBC’s David Faber reported that Situational Awareness wasforced to sell all of its public stock positionsafter facing steep losses. Citadel was later revealed as the buyer of the assets.

“A transaction of this magnitude could not have been completed without the extraordinary cooperation of the trading and prime brokerage teams at the banks serving both firms,” Griffin wrote in the Friday letter to clients. “I am grateful for the focused effort they brought to the rapid transfer of the portfolio.”

Read the full story here.

— Davis Giangiulio

Walmartjust had its worst day in four years, opening up an opportunity to scoop up shares on the cheap, according to JPMorgan.

The investment has an overweight rating on the retailer. It did lower its price target to $125 from $137, though that still suggests nearly 21% upside from Thursday’s close.

“We are buyers – we view wash out as done as bears got their price and trends should improve while alternate profit pools accelerated,” analyst Christopher Horvers said Friday in a note to clients. “Looking ahead, the short case feels greedy to us and is largely based on relative valuation (vs. being long dollar stores and conventional supermarkets) with expectations that (1) there won’t be a lagging elasticity curve on price investments (contrary to history), so not looking beyond this morning’s data, and (2) WMT will have to lap the tariff refunds in 2027, creating a divot in the [profit and loss].”

CNBC Pro subscribers can read more here.

— Liz Napolitano

The S&P 500 is off just almost 2% from its closing all-time high on Aug. 13, but Fundstrat Global Advisors founder Tom Lee says he expects the broad index to still hit new records by the end of the month.

In a Friday note, Lee said he expects by the end of August the S&P 500 will return to levels between 7,900 to 8,000. The S&P’s closing high on Aug. 13 was 7,798.99.

Lee listed several reasons why he thinks the market can get back to highs quickly. He said the fact that there’s no meeting of the Federal Reserve this month, and recent economic readings of a weaker-than-expected July jobs report while inflation cooled during the month likely altering the outlook for interest rate hikes in the near-term, are catalysts for the index to move higher.

He added a strong second-quarter earnings season, improving outlook for 2027 forecasts, and what Lee believes is a soon-to-be end of artificial intelligence-related de-leveraging, are other tailwinds for the S&P.

S&P 500 month-to-date.

The three major averages rose on Friday morning.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 264 points, or 0.5%, shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. The S&P 500 added 0.4% along with the Nasdaq Composite.

— Sean Conlon

Gold futures rose in early trading Friday

December gold hit $4,569.40 per ounce, its highest since May 15. The contract is on track for a fifth straight weekly gain, its longest winning streak since October 2025.

Gold is up nearly 5% this week, extending its rebound from a second-quarter slump.

Earlier this year, the yellow metal reached record highs near $5,600 before retreating and posting its worst quarter since 2013.

— Deena Zaidi

Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:

• BJ’s Wholesale— Shares ticked slightly higher after the wholesale retailer posted better-than-expected results for the second quarter. BJ’s earned $1.36 per share, excluding certain items, on revenue of $6.09 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of $1.17 per share on revenue of $5.97 billion. It also increased its earnings per share guidance for the fiscal year to$4.60 and $ 4.80 from $4.40 to $4.60.
• Ross Stores— Shares were up over 8% in premarket trading after the retail company posted second-quarter results that exceeded analyst expectations. Ross Stores also issued third-quarter earnings guidance that outperformed estimates.
• Crypto-related stocks — The group rose broadly as bitcoin continued its march higher on Friday, with the digital currency on pace to end the week more than 20% higher.Robinhood,CoinbaseandStrategy, were up by at least 4.5% in premarket trading. Bitcoin got a boost after the White House hosted crypto leaders and urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act, a bill focused on crypto infrastructure and clearer layout on which federal agencies would regulate crypto.

Read the full list here.

— Ananya Chetia

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent insisted Thursday that he has multiple weapons at his disposal to quell liquidity problems in the government debt market and restore calm.

While that’s true in itself, a two-pronged effort he has deployed so far — accelerated buybacks and an effort to talk the market into accepting the rationale — have met with little success.

The Treasury announcement Wednesday that it would at leastdouble its bond buybacksstarting in early September sent yields tumbling as investors applauded a backstop for longer-maturity government bonds.

However, yields at the long endquickly rose again Thursdayas market experts showed skepticism at whether the push would succeed against a bevy of factors working against Treasurys.

To learn about what else Bessent can try, read here.

— Jeff Cox

Longer-dated U.S. government bond yields steadied on Friday, as investor jitters over the Treasury Department’s extended debt repurchase program continued to weigh on markets.

Yields on the30-year U.S. Treasury note, the primary focus of the buyback plan, was flat at 5.2371%.

The10-year U.S. Treasuryyield — the key benchmark for mortgages, auto loans and credit card debt —was largely unchanged at 4.6882%. The shorter-dated2-year Treasury noteyield, which more closely follows short-term Federal Reserve rate decisions, was also flat at 4.1828%.

Crude oil prices were lower Friday morning, but remained on-course for a second straight weekly gain.

Traders are assessing Washington’s threat of “crushing” economic sanctions on Iran, dashing hopes of a diplomatic deal to end the war and restore shipping levels through the Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude futureswere 0.8% lower at 4:50 ET on Friday. U.S.West Texas Intermediate futuresfor October delivery were 0.89% lower.

Brent crude is nonetheless on course for a monthly gain of nearly 6%, following last week’s 5.95% rise. The international benchmark closed at over $93 a barrel on Thursday for the first time since July 24.

Brent crude price.

Bitcoinwas on track for a weekly gain of around 20% early on Friday, following a spate of positive developments for the world’s largest cryptocurrency.

Bitcoin was last seen at $75,343.01, up from $62,836.88 at the start of the week.

Investor sentiment improved further on Thursday largely due to a last-ditch push from the White House and crypto industry leaders to get theClarity Actacross the finish line in the coming weeks.

Read the full story here.

— Joseph Wilkins

Japan’sNikkei 225closed 0.30% lower at 66,016.36, while South Korea’s Kospi rose 0.88% to 6,912.95.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 fell 0.27% to 9,058.90.

Hong Kong’sHang Seng indexwas up 1.06% in the last hour of trade on Friay, while mainland China’s CSI 300 closed 0.57% higher at 4,618.895.

— Justina Lee

European stocks struggled for direction in early trade on Friday, with regional bourses and sectors opening in mixed territory.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 index opened just above the flatline, London’s FTSE 100 added 0.14%, while Germany’s DAX and France’s CAC were seen marginally lower.

Miners and banks led gains, while healthcare and media stocks underperformed the wider index.

— Joseph Wilkins

Oil prices inched lower on Friday as investors continued to weigh the prolonged U.S.-Iran conflict. Brent crude futures declined 0.38% to $93.42 a barrel while the U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures slipped 0.55% to $86.35 per barrel.

U.S. Vice President JD Vance said economic pressure remains Washington’s “most effective tool” against Iran, describing the confrontation as a “delicate dance” in which both sides are seeking to exert leverage.

Vance said Iran had faced greater pressure than the U.S. in recent weeks. His remarks followed President Donald Trump’s threat to launch what he called the “most crushing economic operation ever taken against any country,” including severe financial penalties on countries that help Tehran evade sanctions.

Vance acknowledged that U.S. gasoline prices remain elevated, but said they had fallen “substantially” as the U.S. military helped move more oil and gas through the Strait of Hormuz.

— Lee Ying Shan

Gold moved higher on Friday and is on track for its third consecutive weekly gain, aided by a weaker dollar amid the fallout of the Treasury’s intervention in the bond market.

Spot gold was last seen trading 0.64% higher at $4,546.88 per ounce, while gold futures were 0.85% higher at $4,610. per ounce.

The Treasury’s liquidity-support announcement for long-duration bonds this week sent the greenback lower, offering a boost to the yellow metal.

— Joseph Wilkins

Japan’s headline inflation rate hit 1.9% in July, the highest level this year, as energy costs increase amid the Iran war.

Core inflation — which strips out prices of fresh food but includes energy — was in line with expectations, coming in at 1.8%.

Energy prices rose for the first time since November 2025 despite government subsidies, due to high oil costs from the conflict in the Middle East. That showed up in wholesale inflation, which came in at 7.2% for July, with electricity chargesbeing the largest contributor.

Fresh food prices also saw a sharp spike, increasing 7% compared to a 3.9% rise in June.

— Lim Hui Jie

The U.S. government’s efforts to manage pressure in the Treasury market may merely shift the problem down the road as a surge in global debt issuance tests investor demand, according to JPMorgan.

The Treasury is effectively buying back longer-duration bonds while issuing shorter-dated bills, a strategy that can provide temporary relief but leaves the underlying debt burden intact, James Sullivan, JPMorgan’s co-head of global fundamental research, told CNBC’s “Squawk Box” on Friday.

The U.S. Treasury Department, led by Secretary Scott Bessent, on Wednesday announced it wouldat least double the sizeof its government debt buybacks,starting Sept. 9 and running through Nov. 4.

— Lee Ying Shan

Mainland China and Hong Kong shares were mixed on Friday, amid broad losses in other Asian markets.

Hong Kong’sHang Seng indexrose 0.64%, while mainland China’s CSI 300 was marginally lower.

The declines in the Hang Seng were led by basic materials and industrials sectors, up 2.32% and 1.38%, respectively.

— Justina Lee

Asia-Pacific markets traded lower early Friday.

Japan’sNikkei 225 fell 0.92% while the Topix slipped 0.40%.

The Kospi dropped 1.07%, while the small-cap Kosdaq declined 2.44%.

Australia’s benchmark S&P/ASX 200 was 0.21% lower.

— Justina Lee

Asia-Pacific markets were set to open broadly lower on Friday, tracking a sharp pullback on Wall Street as as long-dated U.S. Treasury yields rebounded.

Japan’sNikkei 225was poised to decline, with the Chicago futures contract at 65,560 and its Osaka counterpart last trading at 65,510, compared with the index’s previous close of 66,216.79.

Hong KongHang Seng indexfutures were at 25,696, compared with the index’s last close of 25,698.49.

Futures for Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 last traded at 8,991, while the index closed at 9,083.80.

Tensions continue to simmer between the U.S. and Iran, after U.S. Treasury SecretaryScott Bessentvowed that the U.S. will create “the greatest coordinated economic isolation in the history of the world” against Iran.

“If we are doing the maximum economic pressure, then that means that likely there will not be a large-scale kinetic restart,” Bessent said in an exclusive interview with CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.”

— Justina Lee

Ross Stores shares were up 7% following the closing bell after the discount retailer reported better-than-expected results for the second quarter.

The company earned $2.06 per share, excluding certain items, on revenue of $6.26 billion. Analysts polled by FactSet expected a profit of $1.95 per share on revenue of $6.16 billion.

Ross also issued better-than-expected full-year earnings guidance.

ROST 5-day chart