TheS&P 500was relatively unchanged on Friday after a record-setting session, with the benchmark on pace for its third consecutive weekly advance.
The broad market index hovered just above the flatline, while theNasdaq Compositerose 0.2%. TheDow Jones Industrial Averageedged lower, sliding 52 points, or 0.1%.
Applied Materialswas a sore spot in the session, as shares dropped more than 3% in the session.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite are headed for their third straight weekly advances. Both have advanced 0.6% in the period. The Dow, meanwhile, is down 0.6% week to date.
The week has been a record-setting one for the S&P 500, with the index on Thursdaycrossing 7,800 for the first timeafter hitting an intraday all-time high of 7,816.70. The benchmark also closed at a record in the prior trading day.
"The market is appropriately bullish right now," Anastasia Amoroso, chief investment strategist at Partners Group, told CNBC's "Closing Bell" in an interview, noting the strength in U.S. corporate earnings.
With more than 90% of S&P 500 companies having posted second-quarter results, earnings growth from the year-earlier period is tracking around 50%, according to FactSet.
Amoroso also noted that software has "rallied and rebounded … I think the market came to the realization that maybe we did not appropriately price in those risks." Indeed, theiShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF (IGV)is up around 28% over the past six months after tumbling more than 24% in the first quarter.
Investors on Friday shrugged off retail sales numbers for July, whichshowed an unexpected declineon the month.
The S&P 500 was relatively unchanged on Friday morning.
The broad market index traded just above the flatline after 9:30 a.m. ET, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 52 points, or 0.1%.
Retail sales unexpectedly fell in July
July retail sales declined by 0.6% in July, a huge miss relative to the 0.1% increase economists polled by Dow Jones expected.
Excluding autos, sales fell 0.3%. Economists expected a 0.2% gain.
Sandiskhas shot up sixfold in 2026 and still has room to run due to sky-high memory demand linked to the artificial intelligence boom, according to JPMorgan.
The investment bank upgraded the flash memory name to overweight from neutral. It also has a $2,250 price target on shares, implying 47% upside from Thursday's close.
"Following a period of restriction on Sandisk (SNDK), we are moving to an OW Rating," analyst Harlan Sur said Friday in a note to clients. "SNDK is in many respects uniquely positioned to capture the ongoing structural inflection in NAND demand driven by rapid growth in AI inference."
Shares of Sandisk have surged 544% year to date as an acceleration in AI adoption boosted demand for memory and storage — even creating supply constraints.
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Reddit, Applied Materials and Wayfair among the stocks making moves before the bell
Check out the companies making the biggest moves premarket:
Here's the latest ahead of the opening bell on Wall Street
Applied Materials falls on earnings
Applied Materialslost more than 5% in premarket trading after the semiconductor manufacturing equipment maker posted Q2 results that failed to impress investors.
The company earned an adjusted $3.50 per share on revenue of $9.12 billion. Sales within its key semiconductor systems division came in at $7.04 billion, only slightly above a FactSet consensus of $6.96 billion.
Cash flow from operations did come in at $3.04 billion, well above a FactSet estimate of $2.13 billion.
Nintendo shares pop 7% on ‘Pokémon Pokopia’ sales
Nintendo shares closed 7% higher in Japan on Friday after it disclosed sales of its viral game "Pokémon Pokopia."
The Japanese giant said on Thursday that sales of "Pokémon Pokopia" surpassed 5 million units on its flagship Switch 2 console.
Investors watch updates of game sales closely because hit titles can often drive shipments of Nintendo's console, which has faced some headwinds.
