Friday's Final Takeaways: Gold Jumps on Lower U.S. Dollar & Consumers Stay Selective

**Marley Kayden** (0:02)
Welcome back to Market On Close. I'm Marley Kayden here in Chicago alongside Sam Vadas at the New York Stock Exchange. We'll close out our week with our final thoughts on the session today. Bitcoin, of course, extending its rally. As the cryptocurrency finished the week, up more than 20% higher, as investors grow increasingly optimistic about the outlook for the digital asset. CryptoLink stocks also moving sharply higher alongside it. Coinbase gained more than 8%.
Strategy was up more than 6%. The top performer in the NASDAQ 100 today. This latest boost came after the White House hosted crypto industry leaders and urged Congress to pass the Clarity Act, which would establish clearer rules around crypto infrastructure and federal regulatory oversight. The rally does mark a sharp reversal for the sector and puts the focus on whether regulatory clarity can turn the recent Bitcoin momentum into a broader sustained recovery for crypto and crypto stocks. Gold also surging again today. Futures up to around $4,648. And outspot prices at about $4,588. That's putting the metal on track for about a 5% gain this week. That's its highest level in roughly three months. The rally was driven by bond market jitters, a softer dollar, and some renewed concerns over growing US debt. Reviving demand from gold as a hedge against fiscal and currency uncertainty. It marks a sharp turnaround from when gold pulled back from record highs near $5,600 earlier this year and suffered its worst quarterly performance since 2013 in the second quarter. Now investors watching whether the concerns around the US borrowing costs and the dollar can fuel a more sustained comeback in gold even with higher interest rates, typically posing a headwind for the non-yielding metal. But I did see several bullish notes both on the technical and fundamental setup of gold today, Sam. So that's one to watch for sure. But what caught your eye today?

**Sam Vadas** (1:49)
Just this big week for retail earnings which really gave us some clues, Marley, about the health of the US consumer. Some of the key takeaways for me was that consumers are being selective and they want value. We very much saw that through the reports. We saw it in Ross Stores and BJ's Wholesale Club. Both of those discount retailers really emerging as big beneficiaries of so-called bargain hunting. Target really stood out for being able to defy the sell-off that we saw this week because this is a big comeback story in retail. That turnaround is clearly working for the company, although even the CEO has said two quarters don't make a trend. So let's see. But one of the themes that emerged, and Alex has been touching on this as well this quarter, which helped, were the tariff refunds, which could be a one-off or have to wait and see. But there's also separately an interesting debate going on about Walmart. Now, I noticed the analyst appeared to be very mixed on the short-term growth versus the long-term fundamentals. Now, this sold off post earnings and many said this was to do with valuation, but I think this was really underscored today, this debate by the diverging analyst calls that we got. Freedom Broker, for instance, upgrading the stock while Gordon Haskett downgraded the name. So the market appears to be split right now over the timing of the near-term versus the multi-year story for Walmart. But heading into next week, Marley, I guess I can guess what we're going to be watching.

**Marley Kayden** (3:14)
Oh, I'm sure you can. Earnings, a few big names, exporting goods into it, Salesforce, CrowdStrike, HBQ, Best Buy Dollar General, Marvell, Alta and the name we've been waiting for, NVIDIA. Of course, the bar very high for some perspective. The expected move, Sam, is about $13.50 in either direction for NVIDIA. That equates to the market cap of Morgan Stanley or essentially the equivalent of three Starbucks just for perspective.

**Sam Vadas** (3:40)
I love that context. It's really good to put it in perspective. Speaking of not being able to get my words out, we've got the PCE and Jackson Hole, all eyes on what Kevin Walsh has to say, particularly off the back of what we got from Bessette this week.

**Marley Kayden** (3:57)
All right. That's going to take us into the weekend for Sam Vadas. I'm Marley Kayden. Thanks so much for joining us today. You can download our Schwab Network app in the Apple App Store, but have a great weekend.