Wall Street holds near records amid rising geopolitical tensions
Stocks wavered in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday as the first week of corporate earnings season closes out with markets trading near record levels.
The S&P 500 rose 0.1% after shifting between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.1%, as of 3:17 p.m. ET. The Nasdaq composite rose 0.1%.
Technology stocks were the strongest forces behind the market’s moves. The S&P 500 has slightly more losers than gainers, but several big technology stocks made strong gains and countered losses elsewhere.
Nvidia rose 0.4%, Broadcom rose 2.8%, and Micron Technology rose 6.8%. All three are semiconductor companies that are among several Big Tech companies with outsized valuations that often push the market higher or lower.
A handful of regional U.S. banks reported their earnings following mixed reports from their larger peers. Pittsburgh’s PNC jumped 3.9% after it beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter targets, but Regions Financial fell 3% after reporting results that missed forecasts.
Outside of the banking sector, transport company J.B. Hunt Transport Services fell 1% after reporting mixed quarterly financial results.
The latest round of earnings updates from companies could help give Wall Street a better sense of how consumers are spending their money and how businesses are operating amid economic concerns brought on by inflation and tariffs. Results from the technology sector are being scrutinized by investors trying to figure out whether the high stock prices fueled by the craze around artificial intelligence are justified.
“Despite the strong start to 2026, we would not be surprised if markets experience volatility in the coming weeks as fourth-quarter earnings progress and the threat of escalating geopolitical tensions remains,” wrote Doug Beath, global equity strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute, in a note to investors.
Wall Street will have a broader mix of earnings to review next week, coming from airlines, industrial companies, and technology companies. United Airlines, 3M, and Intel are all scheduled to release their quarterly earnings results next week.
Crude oil prices rose after dropping sharply on Thursday. The price of U.S. crude oil rose 0.4% to $59.44 and the price of Brent crude, the international standard, rose 0.6% to $64.13. Oil prices have been volatile amid widespread protests in Iran against that country’s leadership and President Donald Trump’s warnings that the U.S. “will come to their rescue.”
Gold prices, which have also been volatile this week, fell. Prices for the precious metal, often viewed as a safe haven amid economic and geopolitical uncertainty, fell 0.6%, but are still up more than 5% so far in January.
Treasury yields moved higher in the bond market. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.23%, from 4.17% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, rose to 3.60%, from 3.57% late Thursday.
The Fed’s next policy meeting on interest rates is in two weeks, and Wall Street is betting that it will maintain its current benchmark interest rate. The central bank is trying to balance a slowing jobs market with stubbornly high inflation. Updates on inflation this week showed that prices remain above the Fed’s 2% goal.
The U.S. central bank will get one more update on inflation next week when the government releases the personal consumption expenditures price index, or PCE. It is Fed’s preferred measure for inflation.
European markets fell, and markets in Asia were mixed. Taiwan’s benchmark index rose 1.9% after its government signed a trade deal with the U.S. China, which claims the self-governed island as its own territory, protested the agreement.
The deal with Taiwan comes amid an ongoing trade war between the U.S. and much of the world. Uncertainty over tariffs have raised concerns about inflation and economic damage because of higher costs for businesses and consumers.
Canada is the latest to shift its partnerships because of the uncertainty. It has agreed to cut its 100% tariff on Chinese electric cars in return for lower tariffs on Canadian farm products as part of the break with the U.S. Tesla rose 0.4%, and Rivian fell 2.6%.
—By Damian J. Troise, AP business writer