On Friday, all major U.S. stock indexes posted sharp gains, with the S&P 500 closing up +1.97% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average rising +2.47%, marking a new all-time high. The Nasdaq 100 climbed +2.15%. The market rally followed an unexpected rise in the University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index for February, which reached a six-month high of 57.3, up +0.9 from the previous month.
Conversely, Amazon.com shares dropped over -5% after announcing plans to invest $200 billion this year in data centers and AI, raising concerns about the long-term viability of its substantial AI investments. In economic news, U.S. consumer credit for December increased by +$24.045 billion, significantly exceeding expectations of +$8 billion, marking the largest rise in a year. Additionally, one-year inflation expectations fell to a 13-month low of 3.5%.
Bitcoin recovered from a 1.25-year low, surging more than +11%, which positively affected cryptocurrency-exposed stocks, such as MicroStrategy and Marathon Digital, which gained +26% and +22%, respectively. European markets were mixed, with the Euro Stoxx 50 up +1.23% while China’s Shanghai Composite fell -0.25%.
