Stocks were mostly lower on Friday as investors grew more cautious towards future economic conditions as the market trades around record highs.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq each ended the week with gains, rising about 0.6% and 1.5%, respectively, as investors cheered solid economic data and a strong start to the second-quarter earnings season -- reflecting that Trump's tariffs are having little impact on prices. The Dow settled just below the flatline for the week.
Boosting broader investor optimism, headline consumer sentiment rose to pre-tariff levels in July, the University of Michigan's Survey of Consumers showed Friday, as Americans' inflation outlooks eased. The month's finial reading saw overall sentiment rising 1.8% month-to-month to 61.8, coming in-line with consensus estimates from Dow Jones.
For inflation, the outlook on one-year and five-year expectations both dropped to 4.4% and 3.6%, respectively, and also came in at their lowest level since before Trump's "Liberation Day" announcement on April 2.
"Both readings are the lowest since February 2025 but remain above December 2024, indicating that consumers still perceive substantial risk that inflation will increase in the future," said Joanne Hsu, director of the survey, in a statement.
Elsewhere, Netflix
The streaming giant updated its full-year outlook, now expecting revenue between $44.8 billion and $45.2 billion for its prior range of $43.5 billion to $44.5 billion -- reflecting a weaker U.S. dollar and positive subscriber growth and ad sales.
Netflix also highlighted its second-quarter operating margin of 34.1%, improving about 3 and 7 percentage points over the previous quarter and year-over-year, respectively. However, the company warned its operating margin in the second half of the year "will be lower than the first due to higher content amortization and sales and marketing costs associated with our larger second half slate."
American Express
Market participants are looking ahead towards the Federal Reserve's upcoming policy meeting later this month for more direction before Trump's looming tariff deadline on Aug. 1. Trump has increased his criticism of Fed Chair Jerome Powell this week, with Bloomberg reporting earlier this week that the president was likely to remove the lead policymaker "soon." Trump later denied these claims in a statement to reporters on Wednesday.
Fed Governor Christopher Waller, who disagrees with the central bank's current "wait-and-see" policy, called for voting members to issue a rate cut in July, arguing that tariff-induced price pressures are most likely to be temporary.
"I believe we should cut the policy rate at our meeting in two weeks," Waller said in a speech in New York late Thursday, stating that the rate should be lowered to 3%, reflecting a 125 to 150 basis point decline from the current target range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
Looking ahead, investors will be met with two key inflation readings for the services and manufacturing sectors next week. The week's headline corporate earnings reports include Alphabet
