US equity benchmarks moved higher on Friday amid better manufacturing data from the country.
At the time of writing, the S&P 500 index was 1% higher, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 0.6%.
The Nasdaq Composite moved higher about 1.4% from the previous close.
The Institute of Supply Management’s manufacturing index for the US came in at 49.3 in December, which was higher than expectations of 48.0 by Dow Jones.
However, the index was still below the level of 50, which indicates expansion in the sector.
Tech stocks moved higher on Friday with gains from NVIDIA Corp.
Cyber defense stock CrowdStrike also gained, while Homebuilder PulteGroup rose more than 2%.
Stocks were coming off from losses on Thursday.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq have fallen for five consecutive trading days, which is their longest losing streak since April of 2024.
The recent weakness in equities means that the Santa Claus rally has failed to materialise.
The rally is marked by positive movement of stocks during the last five trading days of a year, and the first two days of January.
David Morrison, senior market analyst at Trade Nation, said:
US stock index futures were firmer in early trade this morning. They were firmer in early trade yesterday morning too. But that didn’t stop them turning lower as the session progressed.
“Does this week’s stock market behaviour provide clues for the rest of the year? Probably not. It’s fair to assume that much of the recent volatility and downside pressure comes as a result of year-end window dressing and fund rebalancing, as managers shift their holdings between equities and bonds,” Morrison added.
Even with Friday’s gains, US stocks were on course to end the first week of 2025 with losses.
Ford and GM rise
Shares of Ford and General Motors both reversed early losses and climbed after the companies posted positive sales data.
Both automakers posted their best annual US sales since 2019 last year.
General Motors’ sales rose 4.3% year on year to 2.7 million.
The stock was up about 0.5% from the previous close.
Additionally, Ford’s sales were around 2.08 million in 2024, higher from 2 million in the previous year.
At the time of writing, shares of Ford were more than 2% higher than the previous close.
Cerence Inc jump
Shares of Cerence jumped sharply on Friday after the company announced a partnership.
The maker of artificial intelligence assistants for autonomous vehicles had announced an expanded partnership with NVIDIA to help its business.
The deal with NVIDIA is likely to help the company to improve its automotive large language models known as CaLLM, according to a CNBC report.
These models are powered by NVIDIA’s AI Enterprise.
At the time of writing, shares of Cerence were up more than 120% from the previous close.
Steel stocks fall
Shares of steel companies fell on Friday after an announcement by President Joe Biden.
Biden blocked Japanese company Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion takeover of US Steel.
Biden said:
“U.S. Steel will remain a proud American company.”
He also said that the domestic steel industry is a priority for national security in the US.
Meanwhile, shares of alcoholic beverage companies slid on Friday after US Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning on cancer risk due to alcohol consumption.
Shares of Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch Index each dropped over 1% from the previous close.
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