What’s News in Markets: Dow Hits 54,000, Chip Stocks Waver, SpaceX Rebounds

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Hey, listeners, it's Saturday, August 8th. I'm Imani Moise for the Wall Street Journal, and this is What's News in Markets, our look at the biggest stock moves of the week and the news that drove them. Let's dive in. It was a mostly upbeat week for stocks, even if the ride wasn't always smooth. Falling oil prices helped fuel a rally early in the week. As signs of progress toward reopening the straight of war moves eased some of investors' concerns about inflation. Then on Friday, a surprisingly weak jobs report gave stocks another boost. A slowing labor market isn't usually something investors cheer, but in this case, it prompted traders to dial back expectations for a federal reserve rate hike. Overall, the NASDAQ led the gains, rising 5.2 percent. The Dow gained nearly 3 percent, and the S&P 500 advanced 3.6 percent to end the week at a record high.

The Dow Jones industrial average crossed 54,000 for the first time ever, extending its winning streak as investors rewarded strong earnings across a wide range of industries. Disney was the Dow's second best performer this week, trailing only NVIDIA. Don't worry, we'll get to NVIDIA in a minute. Shares in the entertainment conglomerate jumped 9 percent after strong attendance at its domestic theme parks and a billion-dollar box office hit from Toy Story 5 helped drive better than expected earnings. Healthcare giant Amgen gained 6.7 percent as the company lifted its full-year forecast despite ending development on one of its obesity drugs. In the most recent quarter, the drugmaker beat Wall Street's revenue expectations by more than 600 million dollars as sales in two of its existing treatments surged nearly 40 percent.

And Caterpillar also helped power the Dow higher, rising 3.4 percent. The construction equipment maker reported its first 20 billion-dollar quarter in its century-long history and raised its outlook for the year. The company says demand for generators, engines, and construction equipment is being fueled by one of Wall Street's favorite trends, AI.

Strong earnings weren't enough to fuel gains in the tech sector, especially in the chip industry where investors have already priced in so much growth that even eye-popping results aren't always enough to impress them.

Just look at Sandisk. Revenue at the data storage company nearly quintupled from a year ago to almost $9 billion, while a $23 million loss last year turned into nearly $7 billion in profit. Still, shares fell more than 5% immediately after the report. The stock eventually paired losses to end the week 0.2% lower. AMD shares also dipped this week despite reporting record quarterly sales, but investors seem to care more about an update from one of AMD's customers, SpaceX. Elon Musk said the rocket company plans to stop buying AMD chips and build its AI infrastructure exclusively on Nvidia's technology. AMD shares dropped 7% on Wednesday after the announcement, and Nvidia shares rallied. AMD stock finished the week up 1.5%, while Nvidia shares surged more than 11%, becoming the top performer in the Dow.

And speaking of Musk, SpaceX shares plunged more than 13% Wednesday after it reported its first earnings as a publicly traded company. Revenue nearly doubled from a year earlier to $7.8 billion, but investors focused on just how much money Musk is spending on his ambitions in AI.

SpaceX spent $18.4 billion on capital investments in the latest quarter. About $15.8 billion of that went toward AI projects, roughly double what the company spent on AI just one quarter earlier. That fueled concerns about whether all that spending will eventually pay off. But SpaceX believers pushed the stock higher despite the odds. Investors were bracing for even more pressure Thursday, when the company's post-IPO lockup period expired, potentially flooding the market with as many as 912 million additional shares. And retail investors appear to be buying the dip. SpaceX stock ended the week 23% higher and is now the fourth most popular investment on Robinhood behind NVIDIA, Tesla, and Apple. According to Vanda Research, individual investors haven't had a single day of net selling since SpaceX went public. They even bought nearly $23 million worth of shares in the first hour of Wednesday's post-earnings plunge.

And now you know What's News in Markets this week. You could read about more stocks that moved on the week's news in our live markets coverage on wsj.com. Today's show was produced by Julie Chang, with supervising producer, Melanie Roy. I'm Imani Moise. Have a great weekend and catch you next Saturday.