Post-Bell｜Nasdaq Snapped Three-Day Losing Streak; Cidara Soared 105%; Nvidia Rose 2%; Netflix and Strategy Declined 4%

Wall Street stocks ended mixed on Friday as investors looked ahead to Nvidia's quarterly results next week and worried that the Federal Reserve may hold off on cutting U.S. interest rates in December.

Market Snapshot

The S&P 500 fell 0.05% to end at 6,734.11 points. The Nasdaq gained 0.13% to 22,900.59 points, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average declined 0.65% to 47,147.48 points.

Market Movers

Applied Materials recovered earlier losses and rose 1.3%. The chip equipment maker reported better-than-expected earnings and revenue after Thursday's close, and forecast solid results for the current quarter, which ends in January.

Wal-Mart was flat after the company announced longtime CEO Doug McMillon will retire next year. John Furner, the current CEO of Walmart U.S., will succeed McMillon on Feb. 1, the company said.

Warner Bros. Discovery gained 4%. Paramount Skydance, Comcast, and Netflix are all preparing bids for the entertainment company ahead of next week's deadline, The Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter. Warner Bros., Paramount, and Netflix didn't immediately respond to requests for comment from Barron's. Comcast declined to comment.

Netflix , meanwhile, fell 3.6% ahead of a 10-for-1 stock split on Monday.

Nvidia reversed losses from the premarket session and rose 1.8%. Amazon.com has privately joined Microsoft in supporting legislation that threatens to further curb the chip maker's exports to China, the Journal reported. However, investor optimism ahead of Nvidia's fiscal third-quarter report on Wednesday appeared to be lifting shares.

Fellow artificial-intelligence heavyweight Palantir Technologies was up 1.1%. The stock has surged more than 131% this year.

Tesla rose 0.6% to $404.35. Shares closed below $400 for the first time since mid-September on Thursday. The electric-vehicle manufacturer's stock tumbled after shareholders approved a trillion-dollar pay award for CEO Elon Musk on Nov. 6.

Apple fell 0.2%. Compared with its Mag 7 peers, Apple's relatively limited spending on artificial intelligence had shielded it from an earlier selloff in AI-exposed stocks.

Strategy, the world's largest corporate holder of Bitcoin, declined 4.2% even as the market turned higher. The stock has slumped along with falling crypto prices and worries about over Strategy's ability to service preferred dividends and debt interest costs.

Gap fell 0.6% to $24.15, even after Jefferies upgraded the clothing retailer's stock to Buy from Hold and raised its price target to $30 from $22. The new price target implies shares can rise 24% from their level as of Thursday's close at $24.29.

Cidara Therapeutics soared 105% following news that Merck will buy the biotech in an all-cash deal worth $9.2 billion.

MP Materials Corp. gained 1.9% to $58.64. J.P. Morgan upgraded the stock to Buy from Hold with a $74 price target, down marginally from $75.

Market News

Activist Starboard sells Pfizer stake after pushing for changes

Activist investor Starboard Value has liquidated its position in Pfizer, according to a regulatory filing on Friday, ending its push for changes aimed at boosting the drugmaker's share price.

Starboard sold roughly 8.5 million Pfizer shares during the third quarter, according to its 13-F filing which details asset managers' holdings in U.S. publicly traded companies at the end of a three-month period.

Barrick Mining considers splitting into two entities, sources say

The board of Canada's Barrick Mining has raised the possibility of splitting the company into two separate entities, one focused on North America and the other on Africa and Asia, four sources familiar with the company's thinking told Reuters.

A split could also include the outright sale of Barrick's African assets as well as of the Reko Diq mine in Pakistan, once it has secured financing, according to the sources.