The S&P 500 finished higher on Friday. This marked its fourth consecutive gain and brought it close to a record as investors responded to lower-than-expected inflation data. Core PCE, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation measure, came in slightly below estimates. This strengthened expectations for an interest-rate cut next week, with markets pricing in an 87% chance. Major indexes all finished the day in positive territory. Additionally, tech and consumer sentiment data improved market confidence. Stocks like Salesforce, Unity, and Albemarle performed well due to upgrades and earnings. However, Netflix shares fell after it announced a $72 billion deal to acquire Warner Bros. Discovery’s film studio and HBO Max. Overall, markets showed weekly gains, and investor optimism rose significantly, with sentiment reaching its least bearish level since January.
Very interesting to see Netflix shares drop after acquiring such a huge company. December is usually a better month for the stock market so it a little bit of the growth could be done because of that but still very nice to see all stocks go up so much.
ReplyDeleteThe Netflix acquisition is interesting; many are suggesting that the streaming and entertainment industry is becoming increasingly monopolistic. I wonder if this has had an effect on their share price as consumer sentiment is wearisome.
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