US equity indices closed Friday’s session in positive territory as investors positioned ahead of the start of earnings season and attempted to read the latest geopolitical developments. Technology stocks were buoyed by the Wall Street debut of SK Hynix — one of South Korea’s largest artificial intelligence companies.
The S&P 500, the benchmark for US equities, ended the session up 0.42% at 7,575.39 points, while the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained 0.29% to 26,281.61 points and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.29% to 52,637.01 points. All three indices had already closed Thursday’s session higher, driven by gains in semiconductor stocks and a decline in international crude oil prices.
A fresh exchange of strikes between the United States and Iran, together with the collapse of a ceasefire agreement, flooded markets with inflation concerns during the week as crude prices surged and briefly traded above 80 dollars per barrel. However, on Friday, US President Donald Trump moved to reassure investors by confirming that negotiations between Washington and Tehran remain ongoing — a development that, for now at least, reduces the risk of a closure of the Strait of Hormuz.
‘The muted reaction to the latest escalation in tensions with Iran this week is the clearest evidence yet that the market is looking past geopolitical risks,’ Clark Bellin, an analyst at Bellwether Wealth, told Bloomberg. ‘While the stock market is bracing for another strong earnings season, expectations are running higher,’ he added.
The highlight of Friday’s session was the Nasdaq debut of memory chip manufacturer SK Hynix. American Depositary Receipts — each equivalent to one-tenth of a share — in the South Korean technology company surged as much as 15% to 177 dollars before paring gains to close up 12.76% at 168.03 dollars, having been priced initially at 149 dollars. The listing follows what was the largest US market entry by a foreign company on record, with institutional investors and various fund types submitting orders for seven times the amount the company had sought to raise.
Among other notable market moves, Delta Air Lines fell 1.81% even after the carrier reaffirmed its full-year earnings guidance, while noting that strong demand for premium cabin travel had helped offset what it described as its highest quarterly fuel expenditure in its history.
Meta, meanwhile, surged 5.9% after the company unveiled its latest model, Muse Spark 1.1, positioning itself to challenge the dominance that Anthropic and OpenAI have established in the sector. According to the Facebook parent, the new release is its ‘most capable model for agentic work and coding to date.’
Source: Diário Económico
