Inflation Squeezes Stocks, Bitcoin Slips To $68,000, While Commodities On Track For Best Week In Months: What's Driving Markets Friday?

Wall Street continues to maintain a risk-off sentiment in Friday’s session, echoing the pessimism triggered by Thursday’s unexpectedly high producer inflation figures.

Major stock indices flashed red, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 once again trailing, while only small caps and energy stocks managed to buck the trend and avoid losses.

The CBOE Volatility Index, or VIX, was up 5%, mimicking Thursday’s gains.

Although Treasury yields held steady around Thursday’s closing marks, the weekly surge of 20-30 basis points across all Treasury maturities marks the worst week for bonds since mid-October 2023, with the iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT down nearly 3%.

Cryptocurrencies remained tethered to risky assets, with Bitcoin BTC/USD plunging by 5% and falling to $68,000 on Friday.

In the midst of market turbulence fueled by resurging inflationary fears, commodities shone brightly. The Invesco DB Commodity Index Tracking Fund DBC is poised to log its most robust performance since early January 2024.

While gold held steady at $2,160 per ounce, silver staged a 1.6% gain, reflecting, in part, the broader surge in industrial metals, with copper nearing a one-year-high. Oil remained stable at $80 per barrel, but it has climbed over 4% for the week, trading at its loftiest levels since early November 2023.

Friday’s Performance In Major US Equity Indices, ETFs

The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 1.1% lower to $509.37, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA inched 0.9% lower to $386.69 and the tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ fell 1.2% to $433, according to Benzinga Pro data. 

Sector-wise, the Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE and the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLB, was the only positive performers for the day, up by 0.1% and 0.2%, respectively. The Technology Sector SPDR Fund XLK was the laggard, down 1.7%.

Friday’s Stock Movers

• Southern Copper Corporation SCCO rose 5.4% Friday, and is up by 18.8% for the week, marking the best weekly performance since November 2016.
• Jabil Inc. JBL slumped by 16.4% after missing revenue estimates last quarter.
• Zillow Group Z shares tumbled by 7.9%, while Compass Inc. COMP saw a decline of 5.3%, and Redfin Corp. RDFN dropped by 4%, after the National Association of Realtors agreed to pay $418 million to settle claims on behalf of home sellers regarding broker commissions.
• Adobe Inc. ADBE fell over 14% despite reporting better-than-expected results last quarter. The negative reaction came from a weaker revenue guidance for Q2.
• Geron Corp. GERN surged by 85% following the announcement that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s Oncologic Drugs Advisory Committee voted in favor of the benefit-to-risk profile of imetelstat.
• CoStar Group Inc. CSGP rose over 7% after the company announced that Homes.com gained over 149 million unique visitors in February, marking a 567% rise from a year earlier.

Read now: Powell At Crossroads As Inflation Bites Again: Fed Needs To ‘Get Going On The Rate Cuts They Have To Make’ Former Governor Says

Image created using artificial intelligence with Midjourney.