AP Photo/Richard Drew
- US stocks were mixed on Friday as investors grappled with concerns of rising inflation and tech's advertising weakness.
- The S&P 500 ended a 7-day win streak on Friday, while the Dow Jones closed at a record high.
- "The risks are clearly now to longer and more-persistent bottlenecks, and thus to higher inflation," Powell said.
US stocks were mostly lower on Friday, with the Nasdaq leading the decline following a dismal third-quarter earnings report from Snap.
Recent changes to Apple's iPhone privacy settings made it harder for Snap to deliver ads to targeted users, and that weakness dragged down shares of other advertising-reliant tech companies like Facebook and Alphabet.
Fed Chairman Jerome Powell said at a virtual conference on Friday that supply chain constraints have gotten worse, which could lead to an extended period of rising inflation.
"The risks are clearly now to longer and more-persistent bottlenecks, and thus to higher inflation," Powell said.
While the S&P 500 ended a seven-day win streak, the Dow Jones managed to close at a record high, in part driven by a jump in financial stocks.
Here's where US indexes stood at the 4:00 p.m. ET close on Friday:
- S&P 500: 4,544.99, down 0.11%
- Dow Jones Industrial Average: 35,677.08, up 0.21% (74.00 points)
- Nasdaq Composite: 15,090.20, down 0.82%
Digital World Acquisition, the SPAC that plans to merge with Donald Trump's recently formed media company, extended its two-day rally and surged an additional 200% on Friday. The stock was up more than 300% on Thursday amid the deal hype.
Saba Capital, a hedge fund that owned more than 2 million shares of Digital World, sold its stake in the company on Thursday and said its values are not aligned with Trump Media's planned social media platform.
Riding the coattails of Digital World was Phunware, a software firm that helped build an app used by Trump's 2020 re-election campaign. The stock soared more than 2,000% over the past two days as traders speculate of a possible connection to Trump's new media firm.
Tesla soared to record highs on Friday, eclipsing a more than $900 billion valuation for the first time ever. The surge in shares of Tesla helped catapult Elon Musk's net worth to about $250 billion.
The demand for cryptocurrencies among investors continued this week, with Robinhood saying it has more than one million people on its waitlist to gain access to crypto wallets. Meanwhile, another bitcoin futures ETF, this time from Valkyrie, is set to begin trading on Friday.
West Texas Intermediate crude oil rose 1.67%, to $83.88 per barrel. Brent crude, oil's international benchmark, rallied 1.26%, to $85.68 per barrel.
Gold jumped as much as 1.37%, to $1,806.30 per ounce.