On Friday, the S&P 500 Index closed up 0.88%, the Dow Jones increased by 0.38%, and the Nasdaq 100 rose by 1.31%. This market rally was primarily driven by gains in cloud infrastructure stocks, particularly Oracle, which surged over 7% following agreements related to a U.S. joint venture with TikTok. The trading day also experienced the expiration of various financial instruments, with a record $7.1 trillion rolling off the U.S. options market during the quarterly “triple witching” event.
In U.S. economic news, November existing home sales climbed 0.5% month-over-month to a nine-month high of 4.13 million, falling short of the 4.15 million forecast. Conversely, the University of Michigan’s December consumer sentiment index was unexpectedly revised downward to 52.9 from an anticipated 53.5. Additionally, the 10-year U.S. Treasury yield rose 2 basis points to 4.15%, reflecting increased bond yields globally—especially with Japan’s 10-year bond yield reaching a 26-year high of 2.025% after the Bank of Japan raised interest rates.
Noteworthy market correlates included solid upward movement in chipmakers: Micron Technology climbed 7%, and Advanced Micro Devices increased over 6%. In contrast, shares of Nike fell more than 10% as expectations for Q3 revenue weakened, and Lamb Weston Holdings dropped over 25% after lowering full-year sales forecasts.
