Oil prices fell for the first time all week on Friday, and that pullback let the Dow Jones Industrial Average recover part of Thursday's slide. The Dow rose about 0.5% to close near 51,947, while the S&P 500 edged up 0.05% to 7,412. The Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.6% to 24,976 as technology stocks kept falling.
Brent crude, which topped $100 per barrel on Thursday for the first time since late May, dropped 5% to trade below $95. The retreat followed a Reuters report that Pakistan, backed by China, is looking for a way to restart talks between the U.S. and Iran. That eased inflation worries and gave the Dow some relief.
The drop in oil did not lift chipmakers. Intel fell 6.5% even though its second-quarter results beat Wall Street estimates, and other memory and semiconductor names went down with it.
- Sandisk dropped almost 11% alongside other memory stocks.
- Micron Technology fell 6% and Broadcom fell 2.3%, and both carry large market values that weigh more heavily on the indexes.
Underneath the chip selling sits a broader worry about how much companies are spending on AI. The Magnificent Seven stocks lost nearly $800 billion in market value on Thursday after Alphabet and Tesla flagged rising spending.
The week added a fresh policy layer. President Trump's new global tariffs took effect overnight, hitting nearly all U.S. imports, though the White House exempted some energy products. American Express fell 6% despite reporting higher profit.
Both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq closed lower for the week, the S&P 500's second straight losing week, which had not happened since March. Bond yields eased, with the 10-year Treasury yield falling to 4.67% from 4.71% late Thursday.
