US stocks closed lower on Friday, capping a weak week for Wall Street as a deepening selloff in semiconductor stocks and renewed concerns over artificial intelligence spending weighed on investor sentiment. The decline came despite a strong start to the second-quarter earnings season, with rising geopolitical tensions in the Middle East adding to market uncertainty.
Some of Wall Street’s fastest-growing companies are turning expansion into something more tangible: cash. Nvidia, Micron Technology, CrowdStrike and Palo Alto Networks have each reported sharp increases in operating or free cash flow while management or analysts lifted profit forecasts. That combination provides stronger confirmation than an earnings beat alone because cash is available for
Wall Street’s biggest banks are proving that even geopolitical uncertainty and volatile markets can be highly profitable when trading desks stay busy and artificial intelligence fuels an unprecedented wave of capital raising. The six largest US banks generated a combined $55 billion in second-quarter profits, comfortably exceeding analysts’ expectations as market volatility, record AI-related fundraising
Andy Burnham will enter Downing Street on Monday with a promise that has eluded successive British prime ministers for more than a decade: reviving economic growth. But unlike his predecessors, Burnham is betting that the answer does not lie in Whitehall. Instead, the incoming Labour leader is proposing a sweeping transfer of power to Britain’s
As the second-quarter earnings season of 2026 approaches its most critical stretch, the global equity market finds itself at a pivotal crossroads. For over two years, a relentless, AI-driven bull run has propelled mega-cap technology valuations to historically elevated levels. However, the narrative on trading desks has undergone a fundamental shift. The era of rewarding
Gold prices remained below the $4,000-an-ounce mark on Friday, with the precious metal struggling to attract meaningful safe-haven demand despite persistent uncertainty in the US housing sector. Although construction activity rebounded sharply in June after a weak performance in May, the broader housing market continued to show signs of weakness that could weigh on economic
Bloom Energy stock is moving from bad to worse as it crashed to $206, its lowest level since April last year. BE has slumped by over 40% from its all-time high as concerns about its valuation and the data center industry remained. This retreat has seen its market capitalization fall from $98.7 billion to $58
Stellar (XLM) is trying to stabilize after a volatile week that saw the token come under pressure alongside the broader cryptocurrency market. XLM was trading at $0.1834, down 3% over the past 24 hours, while extending its weekly decline to 4.3%. Despite the recent weakness, traders are watching a developing golden cross and an upcoming
Apple (AAPL) reclaimed its position as the world’s most valuable publicly traded company on Friday after its market capitalization surpassed Nvidia’s. Apple shares climbed to an all-time high of $334.99, lifting the company’s market value to approximately $4.88 trillion. Nvidia shares fell more than 3% in early trading, reducing the AI chipmaker’s market capitalization to
Netflix NFLX shares tumbled on Friday after the streaming giant delivered mixed second-quarter results and announced plans to provide less frequent disclosure of viewer engagement data. This has increased concerns among investors who were already worried about slowing growth and rising competition. The stock fell 8% on Friday, extending its decline for 2026. Shares had