LIVE MARKETS-US stocks climb to cap off choppy week

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US STOCKS CLIMB TO CAP OFF CHOPPY WEEK

U.S. stocks climbed for a second straight session, enabling the S&P 500 .SPX and Nasdaq .IXIC to eke out slight gains after a choppy week that saw jitters around AI-related names both resurface and dissipate.

The tech sector .SPLRCT extended gains from Thursday, as a solid outlook from chipmaker Micron Tech MU.O helped ease concerns about high valuations and circular funding that had resurfaced in the prior week. Micron shares jumped 7% on Friday to close at a record $265.92.

Meanwhile, fellow chipmaker Nvidia NVDA.O rose 3.9% after Reuters reported the Trump administration has launched a review that could result in the first shipments to China of Nvidia's second-most powerful AI chips.

In addition, Oracle ORCL.N rallied 6.6% after TikTok's Chinese owner, ByteDance, on Thursday signed binding agreements to hand control of the short-video app's U.S. operations to a group of investors that included the company run by CEO Larry Ellison.

Friday's triple witching - the simultaneous expiry of quarterly derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options, and futures - also provided market support following the recent volatility, according to Brent Kochuba, founder of analytics service SpotGamma.

"The oversold bounce is helping and the options expiration is helping to kind of clear out some of those positions," Kochuba said. However, he noted that the options expiration could leave the market more vulnerable to price swings after the Christmas holiday.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 0.1%, the Nasdaq rose 0.48%, and the Dow fell 0.67%.

Below is your closing market snapshot:

(Chuck Mikolajczak/Saqib Ahmed)

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