Post-Bell | Dow Closes Above 50,000; Amazon down 6%; Tesla Rises 4%; Nvidia, AMD Soar 8%; Novo Nordisk up 10%; ARM up 12%; CoreWeave Jumps 21%; Strategy Soars 26%

01 Stock Market

The Dow Jones Industrial Average blew past the historic 50,000 mark on Friday and the S&P 500 ended sharply higher, as Nvidia and other chipmakers soared and Amazon tumbled after the cloud heavyweight forecast a sharp increase in spending on AI infrastructure.

Amazon dropped 5.6% after saying it planned a more than 50% jump in capital expenditures this year, intensifying a race to dominate AI technology and following a similar announcement from Alphabet on Wednesday.

The Dow Jones finished up 2.47% at $50,115.67; the S&P 500 closed up 1.97% at $6,932.30; and the Nasdaq Composite ended up 2.18% at $23,031.21. Gains were broad and led by technology and semiconductor shares, with investors focusing on AI infrastructure spending and data-center demand. Across large-cap tech, performance diverged as investors weighed heavy capital expenditure plans against revenue resilience.

Unusual-move stocks saw notable strength in semiconductors and AI-aligned names. NVIDIA (NVDA) up 7.87% at $185.41; Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) up 8.28% at $208.44; Intel (INTC) up 4.87% at $50.59; Western Digital (WDC) up 8.61% at $282.58; Micron (MU) up 3.08% at $394.69. Leveraged and thematic vehicles also moved: SOXL up 15.96% at $61.75; TQQQ up 6.19% at $50.59; QQQ up 2.11% at $609.65. Among megacaps, Microsoft (MSFT) up 1.90% at $401.14; Tesla (TSLA) up 3.50% at $411.11; Apple (AAPL) up 0.80% at $278.12. By contrast, Amazon (AMZN) down 5.55% at $210.32; Alphabet (GOOG) down 2.48% at $323.10; and Alphabet (GOOGL) down 2.53% at $322.86. Crypto-linked Coinbase (COIN) up 13.00% at $165.12, and analytics firm Palantir (PLTR) up 4.53% at $135.90. Novo Nordisk up 10%; ARM up 12%; CoreWeave up 21%; Strategy up 26%.

Selected ADRs and China-linked names added to the upside tone. Taiwan Semiconductor (TSM) up 5.48% at $348.85; GDS Holdings (GDS) up 8.88% at $46.48; Li Auto (LI) up 6.63% at $18.97; NIO (NIO) up 7.23% at $5.04; XPeng (XPEV) up 4.98% at $17.72; and Vipshop (VIPS) up 3.76% at $17.96. Moves reflected ongoing enthusiasm for AI supply chains and data-center infrastructure, while broader megacaps balanced strong operating trends with heavier investment cycles. Investors continued to monitor spending plans, chip availability, and software adoption pacing.

02 Other Markets

U.S. 10-year Treasury yield fell by 0.10%, latest at 4.21.

USD/CNH rose 0.01%, at 6.94; USD/HKD fell 0.01%, at 7.81.

U.S. Dollar Index fell 0.27%, at 97.67.

WTI crude futures rose 0.33%, at 63.50 USD/bbl; COMEX gold futures rose 2.03%, at 4,988.60 USD/oz.

03 Top News

AMZN’s Free Cash Flow Will Go Negative, GOOGL Will Not – Analyst

Amazon’s free cash flow is likely to turn negative due to aggressive AI capital expenditures, while Google’s parent company is expected to maintain positive cash flow despite similar spending levels, according to Heath Terry, global head of tech and communications at Citi Research.

During a CNBC interview, Terry noted that the market is treating the two tech giants very differently based on their ability to self-fund infrastructure investments.

The surge in spending is being driven by enterprise customers moving from AI proof-of-concepts to full-scale deployment. Companies like Pfizer (PFE) and AT&T (T) are coming to hyperscalers after successful testing phases, demanding massive increases in inference capacity.

SpaceX Delays Mars Plans to Focus on 2027 Moon Landing, WSJ Reports

Elon Musk's SpaceX told investors it will prioritize going to the moon first and attempt a trip to Mars at a later time, the Wall Street Journal reported on Friday, citing sources.

The company will target March 2027 for a lunar landing without astronauts on board, the report added.

US Signals Crackdown on Compounded Weight-Loss Drugs; Hims Shares Tumble

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration said on Friday it would take action against telehealth provider Hims & Hers Health Inc. for its $49 weight-loss pill, including restricting access to the drug's ingredients and referring the company to the Department of Justice for potential violations of federal law.

Federal action to limit the production of compounded drugs would be a win for Novo-Nordisk A/S, which has been losing share in the weight-loss market to rival Eli Lilly and telehealth firms like Hims. However, the FDA did not make clear whether it could quickly halt the sale of Hims' product, the cheapest GLP-1 therapy on the U.S. market.

Sources: Reuters, Dow Jones, Tiger Newspress, public market data

Disclaimer: This content is for reference only and does not constitute investment advice.