The S&P 500 inched higher on Friday, ending four consecutive weeks of declines that were brought on by trade policy turmoil, recession fears and a rollover in megacap tech shares. The S&P 500 added 0.08%, rising into positive territory as the trading session drew to a close. The broad market index ended the day at 5,667.56. The Nasdaq Composite gained 0.52% and settled at 17,784.05, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average advanced 32.03 points, or 0.08%, to close at 41,985.35. The broad-market S&P 500 posted a 0.5% weekly advance, averting a fifth straight week of losses. The Nasdaq rose 0.2% week to date, and the Dow posted a 1.2% gain. Friday was a “quadruple witching” day, which is when stock options, index futures, index options and single-stock futures expire. Goldman estimated that more than $4.7 trillion of notional options exposure would expire. The session was volatile with major averages coming off their lows after President Donald Trump said there would be some “flexibility” with tariffs. However, he maintained that the tariffs implemented at the April 2 deadline will be reciprocal, saying all countries that have tariffs on U.S. goods will be charged. Trump’s tariff deadline is looming over the market, according to Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management. “Companies are increasingly citing confusion and uncertainty around their planning and capital spending and hiring decisions — and when they pause, it means that they’re slowing down,” he said. “There’s an element of that playing out in the markets.” Two economic bellwethers slid on Friday. FedEx was down 6.5% after it cut its earnings outlook, citing “weakness and uncertainty in the U.S. industrial economy.” Nike shares were off by more than 5% after the shoe and apparel giant said sales this quarter would miss analysts’ expectations because of tariffs and falling consumer confidence. The S&P 500 briefly fell into correction territory at one point during its sell-off since late February, and it now sits nearly 8% from its record high, short of the 10% correction level. The benchmark has made some attempts to rally this month without much follow-through, including on Wednesday when it snapped back by 1% after the Federal Reserve said it would still likely cut rates two times this year.

At its GTC conference, Nvidia (NVDA -0.75%) gave investors 1 trillion potential reasons to buy its stock. That came in the form of CEO Jensen Huang projecting that data center infrastructure capital expenditure (capex) would hit $1 trillion or more by 2028. Investors, nonetheless, largely shrugged off the robust forecast and other upbeat news from the event. That said, if Nvidia’s projections come to fruition, the stock has a lot more upside from here.

More growth to come

$1 trillion in data center infrastructure capex by 2028 would be a continued acceleration of spending in the space, which would be great news for Nvidia. The company’s graphics processing units (GPUs) have become the backbone of the artificial intelligence (AI) infrastructure buildout, due to their powerful data processing abilities and ease of use. In a chart from the presentation, Nvidia estimated 2024 data center infrastructure spending to be around $400 billion in 2024. For its past fiscal year (fiscal year 2025 ended in January), the company produced total revenue of $130.5 billion, of which $115.2 billion was from its data center segment. Meanwhile, research company Dell’Oro Group just estimated that 2024 data center infrastructure spending reached $455 billion. That translates into Nvidia currently capturing around 25% to 30% of this spending. If Nvidia was able to keep its current share of this spending, that would translate into between $250 billion to $300 billion in data center infrastructure revenue alone in 2028. The company plans to continue to lead the way with both its chips and its software. It introduced the new Blackwell Ultra GPU at the event, which will begin shipping in the second half of this year. The new Blackwell chips are more powerful, making them great for more time-sensitive services. Nvidia predicted Blackwell revenue would be much greater than the revenue it generated from its earlier Hopper architecture. Continuing with its chip innovation, the company is also set to introduce its new Vera Rubin chip, which will combine a GPU with its next-generation Rubin architecture and a custom-designed central processing unit (CPU), using Arm‘s technology. It said the CPU will be twice as fast as the off-the-shelf one used in its earlier Grace Blackwell chips. Meanwhile, it will look to increase the number of GPU dies in its current Blackwell chips from two to four with the “Rubin Next” chip that it plans to launch in the second half of 2027. Nvidia isn’t just innovating on the hardware side. It also revealed a new open-source software system called Nvidia Dynamo that will help increase inference throughput and reduce costs. The company said the new software will help orchestrate and accelerate inference communication across thousands of GPUs. It said that Dynamo is not just an operating system for a data center, but for an entire AI factory. Nvidia doesn’t just have its sights set on data centers, though. It’s looking to tackle the robotics and autonomous driving markets as well. Huang proclaimed that “the age of generalist robotics is here” with the introduction of Isaac GROOT N1, which he called the world’s first “open Humanoid Robot foundation model.” The model can be trained on real or synthetic data to help humanoid robots master tasks. The company thinks these robots will be able to fill menial labor jobs and help with a global 50-million-job shortage. The company will also team up with General Motors to help the automaker develop its own autonomous driving system. The move is somewhat surprising, since GM scrapped its prior attempt at a robotaxi business last year. The unit became mired in controversy when one of its Cruise robotaxis dragged a pedestrian down the road after the person was originally hit by another vehicle. Nvidia said that in addition to supplying GPUs, it will help GM build custom AI systems. GM will also use Nvidia’s GPUs and software to train AI manufacturing models in order to build next-generation factory robots. This follows Nvidia striking a deal with Toyota last month to provide chips and software to help run its advanced driver-assistance features.

Is the stock a buy?

While Nvidia has been the biggest winner of the AI infrastructure buildout, it still has a very large opportunity in front of it. AI infrastructure spending is still increasing, and Nvidia is not resting on its laurels. It continues to drive innovation and is looking to make sure it’s the winner in AI inference, not just AI training. Meanwhile, it’s looking for growth beyond the data center into other large potential markets. At the same time, Nvidia’s stock remains attractively valued following the recent market sell-off. The stock trades at a forward price-to-earnings (P/E) ratio of under 26 times this year’s analyst estimates and a price/earnings-to-growth (PEG) below 0.5. A PEG of 1 is typically the threshold for a stock being considered undervalued, and Nvidia’s multiple is way below this mark. As such, Nvidia looks like a solid long-term buy at these levels.

US stocks climbed into positive territory on Friday as investors weighed mixed messages from the Federal Reserve while President Donald Trump indicated he’d retain ‘flexibility’ when it comes to a reciprocal tariff plan set for April 2. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) edged above the flat line while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.1%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) gained 0.5%. All three major averages fell by nearly 1% earlier in the session. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq, both of which entered correction territory during a downbeat start to 2025, snapped four-week losing streaks. Stocks came off their session lows after Trump said, “I don’t change. But the word ‘flexibility’ is an important word,” in response to the question of a retaliatory tariff plan expected on April 2. Most of this week’s gains came after a stock market rally followed the Fed’s decision on Wednesday to stay the course for two more rate cuts this year. Fed Chair Jerome Powell also reassured investors that the economic impact of Trump’s trade war seemed manageable, adding that recession risks remain low. However, by Thursday, the underbelly of the Fed’s decision — which included forecasts for higher inflation and lower economic growth, two concerns that have deeply rattled markets — started to weigh on Wall Street, sending stocks lower. And more companies have said they are feeling the effects of tariff-related uncertainty as earnings continue to trickle out. FedEx (FDX) and Nike (NKE) stocks plummeted on Friday as investors reacted to comments from both companies about the economic outlook, with FedEx slashing its 2025 forecast and Nike continuing to leave gaps in its outlines for a turnaround.

A three-week market sell-off intensified on Monday, with investors worried that tariff policy uncertainty would tip the economy into a recession, something President Donald Trump did not rule out over the weekend in an interview. The S&P 500 shed 2.7%, touching its lowest level since September at one point and closing at 5,614.56. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite saw the sharpest decline of the major averages, falling 4% for its worst session since September 2022 and closing at 17,468.32. The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 890.01 points, or 2.08%, ending at 41,911.71. The S&P 500 is off 8.7% from its all-time high reached Feb. 19, and the Nasdaq Composite is off nearly 14% from its recent high. A 10% decline is considered a correction on Wall Street. The losses worsened as the day went on, but the major averages came off their session lows just before the close. The “Magnificent Seven” cohort, once the stars of this bull market, led the declines Monday as investors dumped the group for perceived safer plays. Tesla tumbled 15% for its worst day since 2020, while Alphabet and Meta fell more than 4%. Artificial intelligence darling Nvidia lost 5%. Palantir, another once-loved stock by retail traders, was down 10%. Worries have been increasing about the economy over the past month, sparked initially by some soft data that appeared to be in reaction to the tariff policy back-and-forth and then fueled further by some recent comments by the White House. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent on Friday told CNBC that there could be a “detox period” for the economy as the new administration cuts government spending. Then in an interview that aired Sunday, President Trump responded to a question on Fox News about the possibility of a recession by saying the economy was going through “a period of transition.” “What I have to do is build a strong country,” Trump said. “You can’t really watch the stock market.” Goldman Sachs slashed its economic growth forecast in recent days because of the potential tariff effects. “We are in the throes of a manufactured correction,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA Research. “I say manufactured because it’s really based in response to the new administration’s tariff programs, or at least threats of tariffs, and what kind of an impact that will have on the economy.” Signs of investors taking off risk were evident everywhere on Wall Street. The Cboe Volatility index, a measure of trader fear, jumped to the highest since December. Bitcoin tumbled back below $80,000 and Treasury yields declined. The declines in the S&P 500 would have been worse were it not for a rotation into some more defensive areas of the market that have steady revenue and pay a dividend. Mondelez and Johnson & Johnson ended the day slightly higher.

US stocks slipped on Thursday, failing to build on a Wednesday rally fueled by reassuring signals from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell after the central bank held interest rates steady. The Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell about 0.3%, while the S&P 500 (^GSPC) declined by 0.2% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) ended the session just below the flat line. All three major averages saw gains earlier in the trading day before ultimately losing steam. The Fed’s decision to keep interest rates unchanged on Wednesday was expected on Wall Street, but markets rallied, driven by a sense of relief that prior forecasts for two rate cuts this year held up. Doubts had been rising about the path to rate cuts amid concerns the US economy might buckle under President Trump’s broad plans for tariffs. In a press conference following the decision, Powell contributed to the good mood. The Fed chair reassured investors that inflation impacts from tariffs will likely be “transitory” and recession risks remain low. But Powell’s comments came after the Fed, in updated projections, revised upward its forecast for inflation at the end of this year while sharply lowering its forecast for economic growth. Those broader economic sentiments have been weighing on markets for much of the past two months, with both the benchmark S&P 500 and tech-heavy Nasdaq sliding into correction territory. For his part, Trump — who has largely refrained from weighing in on Fed policy thus far in a U-turn from his first term — looked set to amp up pressure on the central bank. “The Fed would be MUCH better off CUTTING RATES as U.S. Tariffs start to transition (ease!) their way into the economy,” he posted on social media late Wednesday.

U.S. stock futures traded near the flatline Thursday night after an attempt at extending Wednesday’s Federal Reserve-fueled rally failed. Futures tied to the S&P 500 were little changed. Dow Jones Industrial Average futures lost 19 points, or 0.04%. Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.02%. The action follows a losing session for the major averages. On Thursday, the S&P 500 slipped 0.2%, while the Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.3%. The 30-stock Dow lost 11.31 points, or 0.03%. On Wednesday, even as Fed policymakers kept their forecast for two rate cuts this year, they raised their inflation outlook and trimmed their economic growth expectations. The forecast raised the specter of stagflation – a scenario of rising inflation as the economy’s growth slows. Uncertainty around President Donald Trump’s tariff policies has rattled stocks in recent weeks, and Fed Chair Jerome Powell noted that tariffs may “delay” progress on inflation. Tariff worries are also weighing on companies, according to Michael Green, chief strategist at Simplify Asset Management. “Companies are increasingly citing confusion and uncertainty around their planning and capital spending and hiring decisions — and when they pause, it means that they’re slowing down,” he said. “There’s an element of that playing out in the markets.” It has been an ugly month, with the Nasdaq still sitting in correction – that is, more than 10% off its most recent peak – and the S&P 500 briefly touching correction territory last week. Nevertheless, the S&P 500 is on pace for a 0.4% advance week to date, and it’s about to break a four-week losing streak. The Dow is on track for a 1.1% gain, marking its best weekly performance since late January. The Nasdaq, however, is off about 0.4% in the period, heading for its fifth straight losing week and its longest stretch of weekly losses since May 2022.

Asia shares were hobbled by weakness in Chinese markets on Thursday and struggled to build on Wall Street’s rally, even as investor sentiment was lifted by the prospect that the Federal Reserve could still deliver two rate cuts this year.

The Fed on Wednesday left rates unchanged in a widely expected decision, but maintained its projection for two quarter-percentage-point rate cuts by the year-end.

Policymakers did revise up their inflation forecast for the year and marked down their outlook for economic growth, citing risks from U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff policies.

Still, investors took comfort from the Fed’s “dot plot” of policy rate expectations and Chair Jerome Powell’s comments that tariff-driven inflation will be “transitory” and largely confined to this year, in turn sending stocks higher while U.S. Treasury yields and the dollar fell.

Australian shares jumped 1%, while U.S. futures also extended their rally after the cash session ended on a high.

Nasdaq futures ticked up 0.4% and S&P 500 futures advanced 0.3%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures similarly added 0.1%.

Trading was thinned with Japan markets closed for a holiday, though Nikkei futures edged up 0.2%.

“Reassurance perhaps, but the ongoing path the Fed will tread remains a tight one to navigate, and the central bank remains firmly at the mercy of the incoming data, surveys that can be wholly fickle and market forces that may well still go after a firm response,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone.

Gold similarly scaled yet another record high of $3,055.96 an ounce, helped by the prospect of further Fed easing this year. [GOL/]

Trading of cash U.S. Treasuries was closed owing to the Japan holiday, though futures ticked higher, implying lower yields. Bond yields move inversely to prices. [US/]

That in turn undermined the dollar, which fell 0.27% against the yen to 148.25, while the euro steadied near a five-month high at $1.0908.

Sterling scaled a four-month top of $1.3015 early in the session, ahead of the Bank of England’s policy decision later on Thursday where it is similarly expected to keep rates on hold.

Is the market for initial public offerings (IPOs) finally coming out of its slumber? Spurred on by the growth of artificial intelligence (AI), it just might be.

Since the 2021 popping of the bubble for hypergrowth and special purpose acquisition companies (SPAC), very few new technology stocks have gone public. In 2021, over 1,000 companies came public. That number fell to around 200 in each of the last three years.

Now, 2025 may see a resurgence in IPOs. We have buy-now-pay-later giant Klarna set to hit the public markets shortly. Perhaps most important will be CoreWeave, an AI infrastructure start-up backed by Nvidia.

It just filed its paperwork to go public and should make a debut sometime in 2025. With revenue growing at a blistering pace, there is bound to be a lot of excitement around this first blockbuster IPO in the AI sector.

Should you join the party and buy some shares of CoreWeave?

Fast revenue growth, large deals

CoreWeave is trying to compete with the hyperscaler cloud computing providers (for example, Amazon Web Services) by building data centers and computing clusters custom-made for AI. It began as a start-up that pivoted from cryptocurrency mining when it realized all the Nvidia computer chips it owned would be perfect to sell to AI software companies.

As you are likely well aware of, demand for AI-focused cloud computing has gone crazy in the last few years and turned Nvidia into one of the top three most-valuable stocks in the world. CoreWeave — which Nvidia invested in — has benefited greatly from this spending.

Revenue was $1.9 billion in 2024, up 737% year over year from 2023. It looks like this fast revenue growth will continue in 2025 as its remaining performance obligations or backlog has reached $15.1 billion at the time of its IPO prospectus.

Stocks pulled back Tuesday as a sell-off that has engulfed Wall Street in recent weeks resumed after two straight winning sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 260.32 points, or 0.62%, closing at 41,581.31. The S&P 500 shed 1.07%, ending at 5,614.66. The broad market index concluded the day 8.6% off its closing high reached in February, bringing it near correction territory. The Nasdaq Composite dropped 1.71% and settled at 17,504.12.

Tesla, one of the stocks hardest hit during the market’s recent correction, was down yet again on Tuesday. The stock fell more than 5% after RBC Capital Markets lowered its price target on the electric vehicle name, citing rising competition in the EV space. It has declined more than 36% over the past month.

The EV maker wasn’t the only tech name down during the session. Shares of Palantir and Nvidia dropped nearly 4% and more than 3%, respectively. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (XLK) was also down more than 1%.

“It does appear the market really does want to rotate into things that haven’t worked as well [and] out of things that did work well for the last couple of years, so that may be just what all this is about,” said Rhys Williams, chief investment officer at Wayve Capital.

“The markets are going to remain choppy up until whatever decision is made on April 2,” Williams also said, referring to President Donald Trump’s impending tariff exemption deadline on some imports from Canada and Mexico.

The declines follow a second-straight winning session on Wall Street. That marked a turn after several tough weeks on Wall Street as some soft economic data and Trump’s on-again-off-again tariff policy left investors wary of the U.S.′ financial health.

The S&P 500 officially entered correction territory last week, but the index made up some ground in the recovery rally seen in Friday’s and Monday’s sessions. Despite the recent bounce, the tech-heavy Nasdaq still sits in a correction, a term used to describe an index falling at least 10% from a recent high. The three major averages all remain down on the year, underscoring the strength of the market’s pullback.

While investors continue to follow updates out of the White House, they’ll turn their attention to the Federal Reserve’s two-day policy meeting that kicked off Tuesday.

Traders will closely follow Wednesday afternoon’s interest rate announcement and subsequent press conference with Fed Chair Jerome Powell. Fed funds futures are pricing in a 99% likelihood that the central bank holds rates steady, according to CME’s FedWatch Tool.

Global stocks diverged while gold hit a record high on Tuesday as investors juggled geopolitical concerns with renewed violence in Gaza and a high-stakes US-Russian presidential phone call.

Wall Street resumed a downward slide after two up days, but European stocks rose as German lawmakers approved a massive spending boost for defense and infrastructure.

Gold struck a new record high on fears of escalating tensions in the Middle East after Israel launched its most intense strikes on Gaza since a ceasefire with Hamas took effect.

“It is clear that safe haven demand is one of the major drivers behind this gold rally and with the Middle East tensions rising again,” said City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada.

US President Donald Trump’s talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to yield a ceasefire, prompting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to pledge continued fighting in Russia’s Kursk region.

Major US indices spent the entire session in the red on the first day of a two-day Federal Reserve meeting.

“The news of what’s going on politically, it’s still very uncertain,” said Tom Cahill of Ventura Wealth Management. “I don’t think there’s any new news so far this week that should make the market feel more encouraged.”

But Frankfurt’s DAX stocks index touched a new all-time high ahead of the German government’s response to concerns over the United States’ wavering commitment to European defense.

Germany’s unprecedented fiscal package — dubbed an “XXL-sized” cash “bazooka” by German media — could pave the way for more than one trillion euros (dollars) in spending over the next decade in Europe’s top economy.

The historic parliament vote signaled a radical departure for a country famously reluctant to take on large state debt — or to spend heavily on the armed forces, given its dark World War II history.

“International investors, who have increasingly invested in German stocks over the past few months, are hopeful for a significant boost in fiscal policy,” said Jochen Stanzl, chief market analyst at trading group CMC Markets.

Paris and London’s stock markets also advanced.

Markets have swung sharply following announcements by Trump on the imposition of tariffs on US trading partners and any delays to the measures.

Investors are eyeing this week’s policy decisions from the Fed, Bank of Japan and Bank of England, with all three forecast to stand pat on interest rates.

Asian markets rallied on Tuesday following Monday’s positive day on Wall Street stoked by US data that tempered concerns about a possible recession.

Hong Kong led gains thanks to further buying of Chinese tech firms including Alibaba, Tencent and JD.com.

Electric vehicle maker BYD was also a big winner, adding more than four percent — having jumped more than six percent to a record at one point — after unveiling battery technology it says can charge in five minutes.

Nvidia fell 3.4 percent as chief executive Jensen Huang showcased cutting-edge chips for artificial intelligence at the company’s annual developers conference.