Stocks rise on Friday as S&P 500 looks to snap five-day losing streak: Live updates

The S&P 500 Energy sector is up about 1% on Friday, and is now up 3.3% week to date, according to FactSet.

Some stocks are making big moves in midday trading:

Read here for the full list.

— Sean Conlon

Investors shouldn’t worry about the S&P 500‘s negative start to 2025, according to Deutsche Bank.

While the broad index pulled back in the first trading session of the new year on Thursday, macro strategist Henry Allen noted that also happened in the prior two calendar years. Both years, he added, went on to register gains above 20%.

“The first trading day has been a very poor guide to the rest of the year in recent times, so we shouldn’t extrapolate things too far,” Allen said in a Friday note to clients.

— Alex Harring

Shares of Ford and General Motors both erased early losses after the automakers reported their best annual U.S. sales since 2019.

GM’s sales rose 4.3% year over year to 2.7 million. The stock was up about 0.1% in late-morning trading after falling earlier in the day.

Ford’s sales totaled 2.08 million from the year, up from just under 2 million in 2023. The stock was up 1.2%.

— Jesse Pound, Michael Wayland

With the economy in “a good place” and various levels of uncertainty ahead, Richmond Federal Reserve President Thomas Barkin said Friday that he and his colleagues can be patient in their approach to monetary policy.

“My baseline outlook is positive,” said Barkin, who is not a voting member this year of the rate-setting Federal Open Market Committee. “How economic policy uncertainty resolves will matter. But, with what we know today, I expect more upside than downside in terms of growth.”

The central banker noted multiple variables, particularly fiscal policy and tariffs, that could influence the Fed’s rate moves.

“I expect the story for the coming year to be more about supply and demand — and perhaps geopolitics — than monetary policy,” he said. However, he noted that “none of us know how all of this will play out. So, it’s best to give it some time, and learn more about the path forward.”

—Jeff Cox

Cerence shares jumped 55% after the maker of artificial intelligence assistants for autonomous vehicles announced an expanded partnership with Nvidia.

The collaboration will help the company improve its automotive large language models known as CaLLM. The model is powered by Nvidia’s AI Enterprise

— Samantha Subin

On the economic data front, the ISM manufacturing index came in at 49.3 for December. That is above expectations of 48.0, according to Dow Jones, but is still below the level of 50 that signifies expansion in the sector.

— Jesse Pound

— Jesse Pound

The major stock market averages opened higher on Friday as Wall Street looked to end a sluggish holiday week on a positive note.

The Dow rose 200 points, or 0.5%. The S&P 500 advanced 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 0.6%.

— Jesse Pound

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell.

• U.S. Steel — U.S. Steel shares slid nearly 8% after President Joe Biden blocked Japanese company Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion takeover of U.S. Steel, saying: “U.S. Steel will remain a proud American company.” Biden said the domestic steel industry is a national security priority.
• Block — Shares of the fintech company moved nearly 3% higher after Raymond James upgraded the stock to outperform from market perform, saying Block is trading at an attractive valuation even after its recent run. According to the firm, Block’s seller gross payment volumes will be a catalyst for the stock’s 2025 acceleration story.
• Carvana — The online used-car seller saw shares fall more than 2% after short-selling firm Hindenburg Research on Thursday alleged that Carvana’s recent turnaround is a “mirage” supported with unstable loans and accounting manipulation.

For the full list, read here.

— Pia Singh

A group of alcoholic beverage companies saw shares falling in premarket trading after United States Surgeon General Dr. Vivek Murthy issued a warning on cancer risk due to alcohol consumption.

Constellation Brands and Anheuser-Busch Inbev each dipped more than 1%, while Diageo PLC shares fell more than 2%.

The new advisory from Murthy outlined the direct link between alcohol consumption and increased cancer risk, which is said to be well-established for at least seven types of cancer, regardless of the type of alcohol that is consumed. For breast cancer specifically, 16.4% of total breast cancer cases are attributable to alcohol consumption, the advisory said.

— Yun Li

President Joe Biden announced Friday that he is blocking the proposed acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japanese firm Nippon Steel, citing nation security concerns.

“We need major U.S. companies representing the major share of US steelmaking capacity to keep leading the fight on behalf of America’s national interests,” Biden said in a statement.

Shares of U.S. Steel were down 8% in premarket trading.

— Jesse Pound

A holiday slump for the stock market means that it would take a major rally on Friday for the “Santa Claus rally” to come to fruition.

“The SPX would need to close above 5974 to avoid a failing rally. As the saying goes, ‘if Santa Claus should fail to call, bears may come to broad and wall’. While we aren’t ready to call for a bear market, we continue to see downside risks for January,” BTIG’s Jonathan Krinsky said in a note to clients late Thursday.

Some of those risks include the fact that elevated levels for Treasury yields and the dollar appear to be hurting stocks, Krinsky said.

“Dollar and yields continue to exert upward pressure while breadth remains poor. Until that changes, downside volatility for stocks will continue,” he added.

Wolfe Research’s top stock picks for the year includes Chewy.

The firm upgraded the online pet products retailer to an outperform rating from peer perform. Simultaneously, Wolfe analyst Shweta Khajuria set a price target of $42 for the stock.

Shares of Chewy have risen 1% in 2025, but ended last year up 42%. Khajuria’s new price forecast is approximately 24% higher than where the stock closed on Thursday.

“We see upside to revenue and margin estimates, and we view valuation at 17x ’26 EBITDA as highly reasonable. Improving macro environment, successful execution around efficiency gains, and several product catalysts should help improve fundamentals,” Khajuria wrote.

Specifically, the analyst pointed to several key catalysts for the stock — accelerating customer and net sales growth, alongside international expansion — that should help drive more meaningful margin expansion for the stock. Khajuria believes that over the next two years, Chewy’s year-over-year net sales growth can reach the mid-to-high single-digits.

Meanwhile, product catalysts such as the Chewy Health expansion, which includes vet clinics, will continue to boost the business higher.

“We believe the Street is not fully accounting for the potential impact of Sponsored Ads + benefits of Chewy Health to the company’s [net sales per active customer] and margins in 2025 and 2026,” Khajuria added.

— Lisa Kailai Han

The Washington Post reported that President Joe Biden decided to block Nippon Steel’s $14.9 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel, sending the latter company’s stock down more than 9% in the premarket. An official announcement is expected as soon as Friday, per the report.

— Fred Imbert

European markets dipped soon as trading got underway Friday, with the pan-European Stoxx 600 pulling back 0.3% by 8:35 a.m. London time.

Auto and mining stocks led losses, both falling close to 1%, while financial services stocks were among the few sectors to rise, adding 0.47%.

Regional bourses were also broadly lower, with France’s CAC 40 falling 0.73%, while Germany’s DAX pulled back by 0.35% and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 dipped 0.12%.

— Sophie Kiderlin

SINGAPORE — China stocks extended declines on Friday in a bumpy start to the new year, despite gains in the broader Asia-Pacific region.

Mainland China’s benchmark CSI 300 index fell 1.18% to close at 3,775.1648 after a volatile session, extending a decline of 2.9% the day before. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index rose 0.7% to 19,760.27.

South Korean markets shrugged off the country’s political chaos, with the Kospi index rising 1.79% to close at 2,441.92 and the small-cap Kosdaq advancing 2.79% to 705.76.

Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 rose 0.60% to settle at 8,250.50.

Japan markets remained closed for a holiday.

— Anniek Bao

“A banner year for the S&P 500 may be followed by another” in 2025, Capital Economics senior markets economist Diana Iovanel wrote to clients Thursday.

“After a stellar 2024, we expect another strong year for U.S. equities in 2025, on the back of continued enthusiasm about AI and U.S. exceptionalism,” Iovanel told clients. “Meanwhile, we think equities elsewhere will generally fare poorly, owing to another trade war.”

The S&P 500 has done little since “the Fed’s ‘hawkish cut’” on Dec. 18 but the coming year is likely to bring “a total return of almost 20% over the year from MSCI’s USA Index and about 10% from MSCI’s World ex USA Index,” the economist added. “That’s because we expect the main drivers that boosted the U.S. stock market over 2024 to continue this year.”

Catalysts include enthusiam surrounding AI boosting big tech stocks, “especially through higher valuations, with gains broadening across the stock market,” plus U.S. economic outperformance relative to other major global economies, “lifting earnings expectations more than elsewhere,” the London-based researcher said.

— Scott Schnipper

Stocks are on pace to close out the week with losses. Here is where the major averages stand, as of Thursday’s close:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average is lower by 1.4%
• The S&P 500 is lower by 1.7%
• The Nasdaq Composite is lower by 2.2%

— Sarah Min

The ISM Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI), a measure of economic activity based on a survey of purchasing managers, is expected to have dropped slightly to 48.0 in December, down from 48.4 previously, according to Dow Jones consensus estimates.

The data is due out Friday 10 a.m. ET.

— Sarah Min

U.S. stock futures opened little changed Thursday night.

Dow Jones Industrial Average futures rose by 9 points, or 0.02%. S&P 500 futures and Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.06% and 0.08%, respectively.

— Sarah Min