Wall Street closes mixed; tech stocks stand out

Tesla shares continued to climb, boosting major mega-cap companies, while McDonald’s extended its losses.

Wall Street delivered a mixed performance to close out the week. Of the three main market benchmarks, only the Nasdaq managed to advance, driven by tech giants to reach a new all-time closing high.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, comprising 30 blue-chip stocks, fell 0.61% to 42,114.40 points. The S&P 500, with 500 components, edged down 0.03% to 5,808.12 points, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.56% to 18,518.61 points.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury note increased, as markets looked ahead to next week’s employment data to gauge the potential path of U.S. rate cuts. Earlier in the day, yields had fallen, providing support to tech stocks.

Tesla (+3.37%) was a major driver for the tech sector, following a 22% surge the previous day—its best session in over 11 years. Other tech giants also posted gains: Apple (+0.36%), Nvidia (+0.80%), Microsoft (+0.81%), Alphabet (+1.50%), Amazon (+0.78%), and Meta (+0.96%).

Sector-wise, the biggest gains came from telecommunications (+0.71%) and technology (+0.59%). In the Dow Jones, McDonald’s led the losses, hit by news of an E. coli outbreak linked to its burgers (-2.97%). Meanwhile, Intel (+1.52%) was among the top gainers.

For the week, results were mixed across the three major U.S. indices. The S&P 500 fell 0.98%, the Dow Jones dropped 2.78%, and the Nasdaq posted a marginal gain of 0.03%.