US stocks were mixed on Friday, as Wall Street capped a turbulent week stoked by President Trump's heated pursuit of Greenland while chipmaker Intel's (INTC) sank after its earnings disappointment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) retreated roughly 0.6%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose slightly but posted a weekly loss, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.2%.

The Dow and S&P 500 posted back-to-back weekly losses.

Intel posted worse-than-expected first quarter guidance late Thursday, raising concerns about its turnaround. The chip giant swung to a quarterly loss as it struggled to meet demand for its server chips used in AI data centers. Shares sank over 16% Friday.t

The S&P 500 is poised for back-to-back weekly losses, as the relief that lifted stocks for two straight days of gains wears off. After a rough start to a holiday-shortened trading week, investors took heart from Trump cooling his Greenland rhetoric and backtracking on proposed tariffs on NATO allies. Trump argued that his moves worked out, as the market was "just about even" for the week.

That said, a shift out of US assets is gaining traction as US-EU tensions weigh on the dollar (DX-Y.NYB). And gold (GC=F) headed toward its best week since 2020, while silver (SI=F) topped $100 per ounce.

Elsewhere, there were signs of progress on the China-US front, as TikTok and ByteDance finally closed a deal with Oracle (ORCL) and others to let it operate in the US. Meanwhile, Beijing has reportedly told China's big techs they can start preparations to order Nvidia's (NVDA) H200 chips, whose imports are currently curbed.

Investors are bracing for a blockbuster earnings week next week, along with the Federal Reserve's meeting and interest rate decision. Trump said Thursday he has a pick for next Fed chair in mind after wrapping up interviews, and he will name the replacement for Jerome Powell "soon."

US markets finished the week on a mixed note on Friday, following days of volatility driven by geopolitical noise and a tech sector stumble.

Intel (INTC) slid after the chipmaker posted underwhelming earnings, adding pressure to sentiment.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) retreated roughly 0.6%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose just about the flat line, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.2%.

The Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq posted back-to-back weekly losses.

Meanwhile, gold (GC=F) saw its best week since 2020, while silver (SI=F) topped $100 per ounce for the first time.

Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports:

Investing in Tesla (TSLA) isn't about cars. Rather, it's a matter of faith for its loyal fans.

\\"If you try to look at the normal things like valuation or ... earnings expectations, it's really ... not about that,\\" Robinhood (HOOD) chief investment officer Stephanie Guild, told Yahoo Finance's Opening Bid.

\\"It is about [whether] you believe or do you not believe. Are you in or are you out, in terms of the grander vision that Elon has?\\"

For the retail community that powers the Robinhood platform, the answer has been a resounding \\"in.\\" Tesla is currently the second-most-traded stock on the app, trailing only Nvidia (NVDA).

Read more here.

World leaders, from BlackRock CEO Larry Fink and JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon to the tech leaders ushering in advanced artificial intelligence models, had a lot to say about the potential for AI-driven layoffs and labor market alterations at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, this year.

Yahoo Finance's Daniel Howley reports:

Anthropic (ANTH.PVT) CEO Dario Amodei said during a conversation at Davos that the tech industry is “six to 12 months” away from an AI model that can perform most, if not all, of the job functions of a software engineer.

During the same chat, Google (GOOG, GOOGL) DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis predicted that we’ll begin to see AI impacting internships as well as entry-level and junior-level jobs this year.

Fink raised similar concerns about AI supplanting humans in analyst positions at legal and financial institutions.

Kristalina Georgieva, managing director of the International Monetary Fund, provided a dire view of the impact of AI on the job market saying, “On average, 40% of jobs are touched by AI, either enhanced or scrapped, or changed quite significantly without implications for better pay.”

Georgieva described AI expansion as a “tsunami” hitting the labor market.

“Even in the best prepared countries, I don't think we are prepared enough,” she added.

Read more here.

Alaska Air Group (ALK) saw progress in its premium seat and international flight push in the latest sign of airline competition for high-income customers.

On Thursday, the airline reported adjusted earnings of $0.43, above consensus estimates of $0.11 per share, according to data compiled by S&P Global Market Intelligence. Revenue of $3.6 billion was roughly in line with analyst estimates on annual capacity growth of 2.2%.

Alaska Air primarily operates routes along the US West Coast and plans to expand its international flights from two to five to eventually 12, including flights to London and Rome.

The stock rose about 5% on Friday afternoon.

Echoing results from Delta (DAL) and United (UAL), Alaska Air said it saw strong demand in its premium segment in its earnings call on Friday.

First Class and Premium Class revenues grew 7.1% year over year, compared to a 2.4% decline for Main Cabin revenues. However, even Main Cabin sales saw some improvement from the third quarter, the company said.

\\"We've really seen the improvement in the demand profile across every segment of the business, ... certainly, premium and loyalty are the biggest drivers of that,\\" CFO Shane Tackett said on the earnings call. \\"But I think we actually like the trends we're seeing in Main Cabin right now.\\"

Tesla (TSLA) stock drifted 0.7% lower on Friday after Elon Musk pulled the Autopilot basic self-driving software from new Model Y and Model 3 vehicles in an effort to push its Full Self-Driving (FSD) software.

Yahoo Finance's Pras Subramanian reports:

Per Tesla’s website, new orders for Tesla’s entry-level models no longer offer Autopilot as a standard option, now only offering a Traffic-Aware Cruise Control, essentially an adaptive cruise control that allows the vehicle to change speeds when following another car on the highway.

Previously, Autopilot offered Traffic-Aware Cruise Control and auto-steer, which allowed the car to stay centered in its lane and change lanes using the turn signals.

It’s unclear whether Tesla removed Autopilot because it faced a suspension of its dealer license in California stemming from a ruling that Tesla engaged in deceptive marketing over claims about Autopilot and FSD. The ruling was stayed for 60 days to allow Tesla time to comply, namely, to change marketing practices around the software.

The change comes as Tesla CEO Elon Musk said last week the company would stop charging a one-time $8,000 fee for FSD, instead pushing its monthly subscription offering of $99 per month, which was already an option.

Musk said late Thursday night the price of FSD could rise as well.

Read more here.

Small-cap stocks were poised to end their 14-day win streak on Friday as investors rotated into technology plays.

The Russell 2000 (^RUT) small-cap index was on track for its worst day in six weeks, falling more than 1.2% as of Friday afternoon, after reaching a record closing high on Thursday.

Small caps' outperformance to start 2026 has been one of the major themes so far this year as investors forecast higher economic growth and further Fed easing.

Year to date, the Russell 2000 is up 7%, versus a less-than-1% gain for the S&P 500 (^GSPC).

Yahoo Finance's Ben Werschkul writes:

As he returned to Washington on Thursday evening, President Trump offered an assessment of the tumultuous week in markets, saying that things worked out because it's \\"just about even.\\"

Trading for the week is, of course, not fully over — and stocks opened lower on Friday — but the president assessed that the \\"market reaction has been good\\" to his week of whirlwind tariff threats and retreats.

It's \\"pretty much even, right?\\" he said.

In fact, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) is poised to end the four-day trading week lower after Tuesday’s steep losses. It could be the second losing week in a row as the relief that lifted stocks on Wednesday and Thursday appears to be wearing off.

The president's remarks as he returned from the World Economic Forum nonetheless showed the close attention he continues to pay to financial impacts from his moves.

Read more here.

US consumers felt slightly better about the economy in January.

The University of Michigan's index of consumer sentiment hit 56.4 this month, above the 52.9 reading in December and the 54 expected by economists polled by Bloomberg.

\\"While the overall improvement was small, it was broad based, seen across the income distribution, educational attainment, older and younger consumers, and Republicans and Democrats alike,\\" wrote UMichigan's Joanne Hsu.

She added: \\"However, national sentiment remains more than 20% below a year ago, as consumers continue to report pressures on their purchasing power stemming from high prices and the prospect of weakening labor markets.\\"

One year inflation expectations fell back to 4%, the lowest reading in a year, while five to ten year inflation expectations inched up to 3.3% from 3.2% last month.

\\"Long-run expectations softened over the last two months of 2025, then edged up in January 2026,\\" wrote Hsu. \\"Expectations exhibit substantial uncertainty, though less than in mid-2025.\\"

Read more here.

Credit card giant Capital One was first out the blocks in 2026 among major financial institutions to announce a significant merger.

In response, its stock was getting hit on Friday, falling about 4%.

After the close on Thursday, Capital One announced a deal to acquire Brex, one of the recent class of venture-backed corporate finance solutions — a group that most notably includes Ramp, recently valued at over $30 billion — for $5 billion.

This deal marks a roughly 60% discount to Brex's peak valuation just north of $12 billion clinched at the peak of the post-pandemic funding boom in the fall of 2021. Its also a notable takeout for venture-backed decacorns likely looking at 2026 as a year to find an exit, either via acquisition or an IPO.

The fintech boom that Brex and others rode has passed as the current meta in venture circles; now, it is all about AI. (See a16z's latest fundraising announcement splash for a sense of where the big bets are being placed.)

For the established financial industry, this year opened with many companies enjoying stock prices trading at record highs and optimism about the regulatory latitude and capital markets flexibility to make deals happen, both for clients and themselves.

A surprise proposal from the White House that would cap credit card fees at 10% shook companies in the business of card issuing, Capital One notable among them. Earnings results from America's biggest banks were also met with some skepticism from investors, and their stocks mostly traded down in response.

Recent hostilities from President Trump lobbed at JPMorgan may also cool optimism in the sector, long a punching bag for politicians on both sides of the aisle.

But the Capital One-Brex deal is still, in its way, a template of sorts for where industry observers saw this year going. And we'd be surprised if this were the last time an established financial leader announced plans for a deal like this.

A preliminary reading on S&P Global's US Manufacturing PMI showed the activity-tracking index hitting 51.9 in January. That was slightly below the 52 expected by economists tracked by Bloomberg, but a hair above the 51.8 print last month.

Meanwhile, the US Services PMI was 52.5 in January (so far), also short of the 52.9 projected but unchanged from the previous month. A reading above 50 signals growth, while those below reflect contraction.

Similarly, the Composite PMI, which combines the manufacturing and services surveys, hit 52.8 this month. That was higher than December's 52.7 but beneath economists' consensus estimate of 53.

The PMI, or Purchasing Managers’ Index, measures the health of the manufacturing or services sector based on surveys of business leaders. Overall, the readings showed business activity was relatively unchanged in January from the previous month.

\\"The flash PMI brought news of sustained economic growth at the start of the year, but there are further signs that the rate of expansion has cooled over the turn of the new year compared to the hotter pace indicated back in the fall,\\" wrote Chris Williamson, Chief Business Economist at S&P Global Market Intelligence.

He continued: \\"Increased costs, widely blamed on tariffs, are again cited as a key driver of higher prices for both goods and services in January, meaning inflation and affordability remains a widespread concern among businesses.\\"

US stocks nudged down at the market open after a turbulent week marred by geopolitical tensions stoked by President Trump.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) retreated roughly 0.5%. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell nearly 0.2%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) dipped below the flat line.

The three major US indexes are all set for fractional weekly losses.

Defense IT consultancy Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) indicated that it's seeing contracts reaccelerate after government cost-cutting efforts, such as the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), created a choppy environment.

The stock rose 7% in premarket trading after dropping more than 30% over the past year.

\\"Our national security business continues to see good growth and very good prospects, but I think what's really exciting to us is our civil business is starting to reignite,\\" CEO Horacio Rozanski said on the earnings call, adding, \\"The market does feel like it's at an inflection point.\\"

The company's sales backlog rose 2% year over year to $38 billion in the third quarter.

Overall revenue in the third quarter declined 10% year over year to $2.6 billion, missing Wall Street estimates of $2.7 billion, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence. But adjusted profits rose to $1.77 per share, beating analysts' estimates of $1.27.

The company slightly lowered the top end of its full-year revenue guidance to a range of $11.3 billion-$11.4 billion from $11.3 billion-$11.5 billion previously. But it raised its adjusted diluted earnings per share guidance to $5.95-$6.15 from $5.45-$5.65 previously.

LRead more live coverage of corporate earnings

Intel (INTC) stock tanked by 13% on Friday morning following the company's fourth quarter results. The US-based chipmaker's first quarter financial outlook was a disappointment on the Street, and executives' comments that the company was struggling to keep up with demand also raised concerns.

Yahoo Finance's Laura Bratton reports:

The chipmaker said it expects first quarter revenue of $12.2 billion, at the midpoint of its range and below the $12.6 billion projected by Wall Street analysts tracked by Bloomberg. Intel guided for earnings per share of $0 for the period, short of the estimated $0.08.

Intel corporate vice president of investor relations John Pitzer told Yahoo Finance the softer-than-anticipated guidance was due to supply shortages.

\\"Our biggest sort of challenge in the near term is we can't meet all the demand that our customers are giving us,\\" Pitzer said in an interview. \\"I think our supply constraints are most pronounced in Q1.\\"

\\"We're working aggressively to get more output out of our fabs,\\" he added. Fabs are Intel's semiconductor manufacturing plants.

Read the full earnings breakdown here.

Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban reports:

You won't have to wait much longer for a humanoid robot of your own from Tesla.

CEO Elon Musk, speaking on stage at the World Economic Forum on Thursday, said the rollout for his Optimus robots could start as soon as the end of next year. Tesla-branded help to tidy your home or watch your children could be just around the corner.

Now, sticking to anticipated production timelines isn't exactly Musk's strong suit.

But at the very least, the bright lights of Davos and the many audiences paying attention will serve as motivation to meet the ambitious deadline.

The entrepreneur and showman didn’t stop there. Tesla’s Robotaxi service will be widespread in the US by the end of this year, he said, offering up the second major forecast for his company that’s aggressively pursuing a leadership position in AI and robotics.

The presentation prompted 3 key questions for investors: Why is this such a pivotal time for Tesla? What is Musk's vision for humanoid robots? And how does Musk's Davos appearance play into Tesla's earnings next week?

Read the answers in the takeaway from today's Morning Brief.

Nvidia (NVDA) stock rose before the bell after Bloomberg reported that Beijing has given the go-ahead for China's tech giants to prepare orders for its H200 chips.

US-listed shares of Nvidia supplier TSMC (TSM) also moved higher on the sign that China is close to granting full formal approval to import the chips, seen as key to AI data centers.

Bloomberg reports:

Regulators have recently granted in-principle approval for Alibaba (BABA), Tencent Holdings Ltd. (TCEHY) and ByteDance Ltd. to move to the next stage of preparations for purchases, people familiar with the matter said.

The companies are now cleared to discuss specifics such as the amounts they would require, the people said, asking to remain unidentified discussing private talks. Beijing will encourage companies to buy a certain amount of domestic chips as a condition for approval, according to the people, though no exact number has been set.

The discussions signals Beijing is moving ahead with plans to approve shipments of the H200 — a last-generation semiconductor that’s been thrust into the heart of sensitive US-China trade negotiations. It shows the government is prioritizing the needs of the major Chinese hyperscalers from Alibaba to Tencent, which are spending billions of dollars to build the data centers they need to develop and operate AI services.

Read more here.

Data from the Bank of America (BAC) has shown that investors pulled nearly $17 billion out of US stocks this week, as President Trump vowed to impose tariffs on Europe over Greenland.

Bloomberg News reports:

At the same time, European stock funds enjoyed their strongest six-week inflow since June, while Japanese funds posted their biggest weekly additions since October in the week ended Jan. 21, the bank said in a note citing data from EPFR Global.

The data largely capture flows before Trump softened his rhetoric on Greenland during a volatile few days for investors. He later dropped his tariff threats after NATO Secretary General General Mark Rutte helped secure a breakthrough at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

Read more here.

The retail crowd's faith never wavered, even as President Trump escalated his rhetoric against Europe.

Bloomberg News reports:

Individual investors plowed $4 billion into US equities as the S&P 500 suffered its biggest draw-down in three months, according to data from JPMorgan Chase & Co. Another $2.3 billion flowed in on Wednesday, just in time for Trump to unleash a rally by standing down from his tariff bluster. Stocks soared 1.2% and gained another 0.6% Thursday, essentially wiping out the first-day slide.

For retail traders, the dip buying was axiomatic. The strategy that was born in the 2020 Covid bear market and came of age during 2021’s meme stock frenzy has a new corollary in Trump’s second term. Encapsulated by what’s been dubbed Trump Always Chickens Out, the TACO trade holds, primarily, that any drop caused by threats of punitive levies is a golden buying opportunity. It worked in April. It worked all summer. And it worked this week.

Read more here.

Capital One (COF) stock fell 3% before the bell on Friday. The group released its fourth-quarter results and announced it would acquire startup company Brex for $5.15 billion.

Intuitive Surgical (ISRG) stock rose 3% during premarket hours on Friday after beating Wall Street estimates for its fourth quarter revenue and profit on Thursday. The company cited growing demand for its surgical robots used in minimally ‌invasive procedures.

South Korea's largest e-commerce group, Coupang (CPNG), saw its stock climb on Friday by around 3% after receiving an upgrade from Deutsche Bank (DB) to Buy from Hold. Coupang suffered a cyberattack late last year, leaving investors to seek a US probe over South Korea's handling of the data leak.

Emerging-market stocks, currencies and precious metals are extending a storming start to 2026 as tensions between the US and Europe weigh on the dollar. The rally gathered pace Friday, with the MSCI Emerging Markets Index heading for a fifth successive week of gains, its longest winning streak since May.

Bloomberg reports:

Investors are pouring cash into emerging-market funds at a record pace as momentum builds for a rotation out of US holdings. It’s sent the EM stocks gauge to a record high.

While Asian technology shares drive the rally, other regions are also catching up. The benchmark for Emerging Europe, Middle East and Africa has risen on all five days of this week and is on course for its best month since 2020. The MSCI EM Latin America Index of equities on Thursday closed its highest since April 2018.

The Greenland tussle — even if it has been mitigated for now — has revived questions about US exceptionalism and the role of the dollar, spurring funds from Europe to India to diversify away from Treasuries. The flow has added an impetus to an EM rally fueled by robust global growth, the AI spending boom and political shifts in Latin America, as well as fiscal and monetary policy orthodoxy in much of the developing world.

People “are looking to diversify away from US assets, and I would kind of describe it as quiet-quitting of US bonds,” TCW Group Inc. Chief Executive Officer Katie Koch said in a Bloomberg Television interview. “I don’t think there’s going to be a massive announcement, I just think they’re going to look for opportunities to diversify away.”

Read more here.

From Bloomberg:

US natural gas futures (NG=F) pared a record breaking three-day rally, after traders finished exiting short positions and the market braced for a historic winter storm.

Front-month contracts dropped as much as 7.6% to $4.660 per million British thermal units on Friday, after surging 63% over the previous three sessions. Prices were still on track for their biggest weekly gain in records going back to 1990.

This week’s surge was driven by forecasts for below normal temperatures across most of the country, threatening to boost gas consumption and drain inventories. The freeze — particularly in the southern gas-producing states — has raised concerns about water icing in pipelines, potentially disrupting output from this weekend.

Read more here.