On Friday, the S&P 500 closed up 0.8%, the Dow rose by 574 points boosted by gains in Salesforce and UnitedHealth, while the Nasdaq remained relatively unchanged. Investors were evaluating potential timelines for Federal Reserve rate cuts, especially after PCE inflation data matched expectations. In the corporate sector, UnitedHealth shares increased by 2.9%, and Salesforce rose by 7.5% after a 20% drop the previous day due to missing target revenue and sales growth metrics, significantly boosting the Dow. Gap shares surged by 28.6% after their first-quarter earnings surpassed forecasts, and Nordstrom shares increased by 5% following significant quarterly sales growth. Conversely, Dell Technologies shares fell by 17.9% due to lower-than-expected AI server sales, despite high profit figures. Costco dropped 0.8%, even though it reported better-than-expected profits and revenue. Over the week, the S&P 500 was unchanged, Nasdaq lost 0.4%, and the Dow was down 1%.
