Stock market today: Nasdaq, S&P 500 pop to strong weekly gains after jobs report boosts Fed rate cut odds

US stocks mostly rose on Friday and notched gains for the week as investors took the latest monthly jobs report as a sign that the Fed will likely cut interest rates again later this month.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) lost about 0.3%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose roughly 0.3%. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) increased 0.8%, with several tech giants touching new highs.

The daily results of the major gauges also reflected their weekly performances. The Dow shed 0.6% for the week, while the S&P 500 gained close to 1%. The Nasdaq climbed more than 3%.

If Friday’s labor market reading likely kept the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates later this month, next week’s inflation reading is perhaps the final key data point that could alter that storyline.

On Wednesday, a closely watched report on US inflation will give the Federal Reserve another glimpse into consumer prices before they are set to meet for their last policy huddle of the year. If the Consumer Price Index (CPI) surprises to the upside, that might pressure central bankers to halt their interest rate cutting. But as of Friday afternoon, Wall Street largely expects the Fed to cut rates by another quarter percentage.

The economic calendar also includes wholesale inventories and the import price index.

A handful of major corporate names are set to deliver earnings reports next week. Among the tickers are GameStop (GME), Macy’s (M), Costco (COST), and Broadcom (AVGO).

Yahoo Finance’s Brent Sanchez has a graphical breakdown of what to watch next week:

TikTok’s loss is Meta (META)’s gain.

Shares of Facebook’s parent company rose nearly 3% Friday afternoon following a US appeals court decision that upheld a law banning TikTok from operating in the US under Chinese ownership. The decision, which could be overturned by the Supreme Court, increases the likelihood that the short-form video app will be banned in the US. That would seriously diminish a rising competitor to American social media and digital advertising platforms.

The stocks of several US tech giants rose on the news. Alphabet (GOOG, GOOGL), the corporate parent of Google and YouTube, gained 1%.

TikTok’s future isn’t set, however. In addition to the legal challenges that ByteDance could pursue, there is also the unknown of what resident-elect Trump could do. As Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan reports, his statements on the campaign trail suggest he may at least try to tinker with the impact of the law.

Here are some of the stocks leading Yahoo Finance’s trending tickers page during afternoon trading on Friday:

Lululemon (LULU): Shares of the athletic apparel company soared Friday afternoon on the back of strong third quarter results. Lululemon raised its full-year revenue forecast after beating estimates across the top and bottom line, thanks in large part to the brand’s strength in international markets.

Palantir (PLTR): The big data analytics company rose more than 5% Friday after signing a new AI partnership with defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH). Palantir is up more than 300% so far this year, riding the momentum of advancements in AI technology.

Shopify (SHOP): Shares of the e-commerce platform gained 5% Friday following an upgrade from Loop Capital from a Hold to a Buy, nodding to the company’s use of AI. Loop raised its price target to $140, reflecting a 23% potential upside to the stock.

Ulta Beauty (ULTA): The cosmetic store chain is rallying after the company beat third quarter earnings estimates Thursday and as executives raised their forecasts for full-year earnings. Net sales for the quarter increased by 1.7% to $2.5 billion. Shares rose 10% Friday afternoon.

Bitcoin (BTC-USD) shot up above $101,000 at around 1:10 p.m. ET on Friday after falling below the $100,000 milestone level.

On Thursday evening President-elect Donald Trump announced venture capitalist David Sacks will be his incoming administration’s “AI and crypto czar.”

Bitcoin reached new highs late Wednesday, surpassing $100,000 for the first time following Trump’s nomination of Paul Atkins to chair the Securities and Exchange Commission. Atkins is seen as a crypto-friendly pick for the position.

The token cleared $103,000 after Trump took to his social media platform Truth Social early Thursday to cheer the recent all-time highs, telling crypto enthusiasts that they are welcome for the rally that has followed his election win last month.

“CONGRATULATIONS BITCOINERS!!! $100,000!!! YOU’RE WELCOME!!!” Trump wrote. “Together, we will Make America Great Again!”

A jobs report that largely matched hopes for a “Goldilocks” reading sent stocks higher in afternoon trading Friday as investors digested a crucial test of the prospects for interest rate cuts in December and beyond.

Several Big Tech names also hit intraday highs, including Amazon (AMZN), Apple (AAPL), and Meta (META).

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) was the outlier among the major indexes, shedding about 0.1%. But the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) increased roughly 0.6%.

A US federal appeals court upheld a new law that outlaws TikTok from operating in the US under Chinese ownership, reports Yahoo Finance’s Alexis Keenan.

The plan could still be altered by the Supreme Court or affected by President-elect Donald Trump, who in September suggested in a social media post that he would “save TikTok” and prevent federal law enforcement from shuttering the app.

The law, called the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (PAFACAA), gives TikTok’s Chinese owner, ByteDance, an ultimatum to either sell TikTok to a US owner by Jan. 19, 2025, or have it banned from operations in the country.

TikTok challenged the law by arguing it violated the US Constitution in taking away the First Amendment rights of TikTok’s US entity and its users.

But a panel of three judges from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit concluded that the government’s law withstood constitutional scrutiny by protecting free speech in the US “from a foreign adversary nation and to limit that adversary’s ability to gather data on people in the United States.”

Read about the latest on the government’s effort to ban TikTok under Chinese ownership here.

A labor market rebound announced Friday is likely to keep the Federal Reserve on track to cut interest rates by another quarter percentage point later this month, absent any upside surprises to inflation, reports Yahoo Finance’s Jennifer Schonberger.

“For the Fed, this doesn’t change the narrative,” Robert Sockin, Citigroup’s senior chief economist, told Yahoo Finance.

The new jobs numbers are “right in the spot of what they were looking for and they are comfortable with to continue easing policy” at the last meeting of the year, on Dec. 17-18.

Traders boosted the odds of a rate cut at that meeting to 91% following the data release.

But Fed watchers agreed that the robust jobs picture and recent stickiness in inflation reinforce a mounting conviction that the pace of rate cuts in 2025 will be less aggressive than once expected.

Read about how the latest labor market readings will steer the Federal Reserve’s next policy decision here.

Consumers are growing more concerned about the path forward for inflation over the next year.

The latest consumer sentiment survey from the University of Michigan revealed that consumers expect inflation to hit 2.9% in a year, an increase from last month’s expectation of 2.6%. December’s reading is the highest in six months but within the 2.3% to 3% range seen in the two years before the pandemic.

Expectations for long-run inflation slipped higher, though, falling to 3.1% from 3.2% the month prior.

The overall consumer sentiment index popped to a reading of 74, up from 71.8 in November.

Overall, consumer views on inflation varied based on political party, Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu noted.

“Democrats voiced concerns that anticipated policy changes, particularly tariff hikes, would lead to a resurgence in inflation,” Hsu said in the release. “Republicans disagreed; they expect the next president will usher in an immense slowdown in inflation.”

Also in this month’s data, the survey showed a large increase in buying conditions for durable goods, which boosted current economic conditions by more than 20%.

“Rather than a sign of strength, this rise in durables was primarily due to a perception that purchasing durables now would enable buyers to avoid future price increases,” Hsu said.

A jobs report that largely matched hopes for a “Goldilocks” reading sent stocks higher as investors digested a crucial test of the prospects for interest rate cuts in December and beyond.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained about 0.3% and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.2% after the gauges drifted away from all-time highs at Thursday’s close. Meanwhile, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) increased roughly 0.3%.

The US economy added 227,000 jobs in November, slightly more than expected, as the labor market rebounded from October data that was dinged by severe weather and labor strikes. The unemployment rate unexpectedly ticked up to 4.2%.

The US labor market rebounded from an October swoon, adding more jobs than expected in November, while the unemployment rate ticked higher to 4.2%.

Here’s the breakdown on the November hiring front:

Yahoo Finance’s Josh Schafer has all the details here.