Wall Street Ends Mixed, Notches Weekly Gains Amid Middle East Negotiations Developments

U.S. Stocks Close Mixed as Investors Hesitate Amid Ongoing Middle East Tensions

U.S. stocks closed mixed on Friday, with investors pressing pause as they headed into the weekend and kept a close eye on ongoing Middle East peace negotiations. The Dow and the S&P 500 ended lower, while tech stocks boosted the Nasdaq to gains on the session as investors assessed unfolding developments in the region.

The fragile two-week truce has been threatened by claimed violations of the ceasefire, including Israel's continued bombardment of Lebanon, even as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he was seeking direct talks with Beirut. The vital Strait of Hormuz was kept closed by Iran, which demanded a ceasefire in Lebanon and the unfreezing of assets as a condition to resuming negotiations.

The week began on an ominous note, with U.S. President Donald Trump threatening to destroy "an entire civilization" if Iran failed to comply with his demands. But as a truce began to take shape, stocks rallied. On a weekly basis, all three indexes scored their largest Friday-to-Friday percentage gains since November.

The Labor Department's consumer price index (CPI), the first major inflation indicator released since the onset of the war, showed consumer prices logged their largest monthly jump in nearly four years due to an expected spike in energy prices, which prompted a 21.2% surge at the gasoline pump. Core CPI, which strips out food and energy, was cooler than analysts anticipated.

| Index | Weekly Gain | Friday-to-Friday Percentage Gain Since November | | --- | --- | --- | | Dow Jones Industrial Average | -0.56% | 3.45% | | S&P 500 | -0.11% | 3.24% | | Nasdaq Composite | 0.35% | 3.62% |

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 269.23 points, or 0.56%, to 47,916.57, while the S&P 500 lost 7.77 points, or 0.11%, to 6,816.89. The Nasdaq Composite gained 80.48 points, or 0.35%, to 22,902.89.

Chipmakers took the lead, touching a record high. Broadcom and Nvidia advanced 4.7% and 2.6%, respectively. Financial stocks underperformed ahead of major U.S. banks posting earnings next week, marking the unofficial start of first-quarter reporting season. Analysts currently predict aggregate year-on-year S&P 500 earnings growth of 13.9%, according to LSEG.

U.S.-listed shares of Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the world's largest contract chipmaker, rose 1.4% after it beat first-quarter revenue forecasts. CoreWeave surged 10.9% following its announcement of a multi-year agreement with Anthropic.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.13-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, while on the Nasdaq, declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.5-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 23 new 52-week highs and 24 new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 110 new highs and 144 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.83 billion shares, compared with the 19.18 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.