US stocks were mixed on Friday as Wall Street tempered its rate-cut hopes amid economic data this week that showed higher-than-expected wholesale inflation and a rise in July retail sales. A meeting between President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin was also in focus as traders looked for clues on how the outcome could steer markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose just above the flatline, trimming earlier gains to fall short of a record close. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.3% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) lost 0.4% after President Trump said he would soon announce tariffs on semiconductor imports.

US Census Bureau data released Friday morning showed retail sales rose 0.5% in July from the prior month. That was less than the 0.6% gain expected by economists but still viewed as a solid advance after a sharp pullback in consumer spending this spring.

Meanwhile, US consumer sentiment deteriorated in August, falling for the first time in four months as inflation expectations jumped in the longer term.

Stocks wobbled on Thursday, ending a two-day rally sparked by investor confidence that an interest rate cut in September was nearly certain. Doubts about a significant cut at the Fed's next policy meeting crept in after July's Producer Price Index (PPI) came in hotter than expected.

Major Dow component UnitedHealth (UNH) stock soared on Friday after a regulatory filing showed Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) bought 5 million shares in the company.

Intel (INTC) shares jumped Friday after a Bloomberg report said the Trump administration is considering taking a stake in the chipmaker, using funds from the US CHIPS Act. President Trump met with Intel's CEO on Monday after calling on him to resign the previous week.

And Applied Materials (AMAT) stock sank nearly 14% after the chip equipment maker issued weak fourth quarter forecasts due to sluggish demand in China, fueling concerns over tariff-related risks.

Stocks closed the session mixed on Friday, but the major averages managed to notch a second straight week of gains.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) fell 0.3%, retreating from its record, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also closed the session down 0.4%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained slightly as shares of UnitedHealth Group (UNH) surged.

Rate cut uncertainty permeated the market over the past two sessions following Thursday's hotter-than-expected monthly producer price index (PPI) print.

US consumer sentiment deteriorated in August, falling for the first time in four months. Meanwhile, retail sales jumped 0.5% in July, showing consumer spending had steadied following a dramatic drop earlier in the year.

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin greeted each other in Alaska as a summit centered around the Ukraine war began.

Trump wants Russia and Ukraine to end the war. Earlier this week the president said their would be 'severe consequences' if Moscow did not end the conflict following the summit.

Investors are eying the meeting for clues on how the outcome could steer markets.

Stock were poised to close the session mixed, but the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) could notch its first record high of the year.

The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) traded below its record close, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) also fell below the flatline.

All three major averages were on pace to end the week with gains.

Among the S&P 500 sectors, Healthcare (XLV) stocks outperformed, along with Communications Services (XLC), and Consumer Discretionary (XLY).

UBS strategists say the US hasn't seen the last of rising inflation, following this week's hotter-than-expected PPI print, but investors should put their money to work as a Fed cut in September is still the likely outcome.

“We expect overall inflation to continue on a gradual upward trend as businesses pass along their higher costs, but we also believe slowing shelter inflation and pushback from increasingly stretched consumers should help offset some of the tariff impact on price pressures,\\" Ulrike Hoffmann-Burchardi, global head of equities at UBS Global Wealth Management said in a note on Friday.

Monthly retail sales jumped 0.5% in July, marking the second monthly gain in a row, as consumer spending steadied following a dramatic drop earlier in the year.

Hoffmann-Burchardi noted the downside risks in the labor market are likely to outweigh inflation concerns, as economic activity slows further in the second half of the year.

\\"We expect the Fed to bring its policy rate 100 basis points lower in the months to come, reducing returns on cash,\\" she added.

Yahoo Finance's Francisco Velasquez reports:

Investors' \\"Goldilocks\\" summer could be coming to an end.

After months of ideal market conditions, Goldman Sachs (GS) warns that underlying risks could send stocks tumbling. The current backdrop of stable economic growth, moderate inflation, and a strong earnings season — fueled by Big Tech's AI spend and hopes for an interest rate cut — has created a summer of rally.

But a key factor behind the markets' stability has been a \\"volatility reset,\\" with investors accepting lower returns on riskier assets as the market avoids sharp price swings. Goldman noted that during \\"Goldilocks\\" regimes, low market and economic volatility typically lead to more stable returns. However, the bank warned that this calm could quickly turn into a storm if growth slows or the Fed tightens monetary policy.

Read more here.

UnitedHealth Group's (UNH) stock rallied on Friday following the revelation that Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-A, BRK-B) purchased 5 million shares last quarter.

The more than 10% jump in shares of the healthcare insurance giant helped lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) into green territory, as the rest of the major averages dropped.

UnitedHealth has suffered multiple setbacks in the past couple of years. With earnings misses piling on top of that, the stock has been under constant pressure and is down more than 45% year to date.

Read more here.

The IPO market is on fire this summer, Yahoo Finance's Jake Conley reports.

Conley writes:

The end of summer usually marks one of the slowest periods of the year for investment bankers.

This year, however, markets aren't taking a vacation.

Halfway through August, the IPO market has already roughly doubled the amount of activity typically seen during the month, with 12 new issues worth at least $50 million raising some $2.9 billion in capital.

August typically saw nine IPOs raising an average of $1.5 billion collectively over the past decade, according to data from IPO research firm Renaissance Capital.

Read the full story here.

Opendoor Technologies (OPEN) shares spiked as much as 10% in morning trading after the company announced the departure of its CEO Carrie Wheeler effective immediately.

Opendoor said it is searching for a new CEO to lead the ibuyer in its next growth phase, just weeks after the stock skyrocketed in a meme-fueled rally.

The board appointed Shrisha Radhakrishna, Opendoor’s chief technology and product officer, as president and interim leader of the company.

Shares of Opendoor have been on a wild ride over the past month, powered in part by Carvana (CVNA) turnaround spotter EMJ Capital and speculative investors on Reddit's wallstreetbets.

EMJ Capital founder and president Eric Jackson wrote in mid-July that his firm was taking a long position in Opendoor, which was then trading under $1 per share.

Jackson has been critical of Opendoor's top leadership, most recently following the company's latest quarterly results in early August, when the stock sank 20% following a disappointing earnings forecast.

\\"The communication on the earnings call from the CEO and the CFO was really awful,\\" Jackson told Yahoo Finance last week.

\\"The management team didn't do anything to get this thing up from 51 cents to almost five bucks,\\" he said. \\"It was basically all of us retailers who saw the value in this platform, supported it. We got not a word from management over these last few weeks. So I think she's got to go.\\"

Chip stocks dropped Friday after President Trump said he will set tariffs on semiconductors as soon as next week.

\\"I'll be setting tariffs next week and the week after on steel and on, I would say, chips,\\" Trump told reporters Friday while aboard Air Force One while traveling to Alaska to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin, Reuters reported.

Nvidia (NVDA), AMD (AMD), and Broadcom (AVGO) fell more than 1%, while Micron (MU) dropped more than 3%.

Trump said earlier this month that semiconductor companies building out their domestic manufacturing footprint — this includes the world's leading contract chip manufacturer, Taiwanese firm TSMC (TSM) — would be exempt from his planned 100% tariffs on chips. That commentary sent chip stocks up. But on Friday, he implied that the exemption may only be temporary.

\\"I'm going to have a rate that is going to be lower at the beginning — that gives them a chance to come in and build — and very high after a certain period of time,\\" he said.

US consumer sentiment deteriorated in August, falling for the first time in four months. The University of Michigan's Consumer Sentiment Index fell to 58.6 from a reading of 61.7 in July. It was also less than the 62 reading expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

“This deterioration largely stems from rising worries about inflation,” wrote Joanne Hsu, the director of the university’s Surveys of Consumers.

Consumer sentiment had improved in June and July after plummeting in the spring as Americans worried about the impacts of Trump’s tariffs. In May, the index showed sentiment at its second-lowest level on record as consumers expressed concerns over long-term inflation, fueled by uncertainty surrounding Trump’s trade policies. Sentiment improved in June as Trump dialed back some of his aggressive stances on tariffs.

“Overall, consumers are no longer bracing for the worst-case scenario for the economy feared in April when reciprocal tariffs were announced and then paused,” Hsu said. “However, consumers continue to expect both inflation and unemployment to deteriorate in the future.”

Read more here.

US stocks were mixed on Friday at the open as Wall Street tempered its hopes for the Fed to cut interest rates in September, as economic data this week showed higher than expected wholesale inflation and a rise in July retail sales.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose around 0.5%, putting the index on track for its first record since December. The benchmark S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose less than 0.1%, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) fell below the flatline.

Intel (INTC) stock spiked more than 7% Thursday and continued to climb 3% before the market open on Friday, following a report that the US government is considering taking a stake in the troubled chipmaker.

Bloomberg reported that the Trump administration is in talks with Intel about the deal, which would help the company complete its Ohio factory expansion that had been put on hold.

The report follows a meeting between President Trump and Intel CEO Lip-Bu Tan earlier this week, which came after the president called for the CEO’s resignation due to his ties with China.

\\"As Intel’s prospects have dimmed, the idea of support (governmental or otherwise) has gained traction, understandable given the company, for better or worse, remains the only US-headquartered prospect for leading edge semiconductor chips and processes; it seems like Trump may have been persuaded to see the light,\\" Bernstein analyst Stacy Rasgon wrote in a note to investors Friday.

It's not the first time the Trump administration has allegedly floated ideas to prop up Intel. In February, a news report said the US was pitching proposals to its rival TSMC to help support its turnaround by establishing a joint venture with Intel.

Read more here.

Retail sales rose 0.5% in July from the prior month, according to data from the US Census Bureau released Friday — marking the second monthly gain in a row, as consumer spending steadies following a dramatic drop in earlier in the year.

Still, the jump was less than the 0.6% gain expected by economists surveyed by Bloomberg.

Excluding auto and gas sales, retail sales were up 0.2%, also less than the 0.3% projected.

An even narrower slice of retail sales called the “control group” — a more precise measure of consumer spending that excludes certain sales such as those from office supply and tobacco stores — climbed 0.5%, ahead of the 0.4% expected.

Retail sales rebounded in June, a sign that consumer spending habits were remaining resilient despite President Trump's tariffs.

Read more here.

Yahoo Finance's Hamza Shaban writes in today's Morning Brief:

The push and pull of conflicting data sets and the crosscurrents of the Fed's dual mission were on full display this week. And so was the specter of stagflation.

Producer prices surged in July, heating up far ahead of forecasts and offering an uncomfortable surprise of mounting pricing pressures on their way to consumers. At the same time, the number of Americans filing new applications for jobless benefits fell last week, signaling low layoffs.

But the reading also suggested people on the hunt for jobs are having a tough time. Firings aren't ramping up, but neither are hirings — which the latest jobs report and its revisions made quite clear.

The data didn't spark a second-guessing of a coming rate cut in September. But the market blinked. Odds of the Fed holding firm next month increased from 0% on Wednesday to 9% on Thursday after the releases, according to data from the CME Group. And the chances of a jumbo cut of 50 basis points in September have evaporated.

Things change fast, but the main takeaway hasn't changed: Markets are still pricing in over a 90% chance the central bank will reduce rates when officials meet again.

Read more here.

Economic data: Retail sales (July); Export prices (July); Industrial production (July); University of Michigan consumer sentiment (August preliminary)

Earnings: No notable earnings.

Here are some of the biggest stories you may have missed overnight and early this morning:

'Striking while the iron is hot'

Investors want rate cut 'validation,' but the Fed's dilemma remains

Applied Materials' shares sink on weak China demand, tariff risks

UnitedHealth jumps as Buffett's Berkshire buys 5M shares

BofA's Hartnett sees profit-taking in stocks after Jackson Hole

AI exacerbates tech divide with smaller stocks languishing

A trader's guide to the Alaska talks between Trump and Putin

China's economy slows in July on tariffs, weak property market

Shares in Applied Materials (AMAT) sank 14% before the bell on Friday after the chip equipment maker issued weak fourth-quarter forecasts on sluggish China demand, fueling concerns over tariff-related risks.

Reuters reports:

The Santa-Clara, California-based company's forecast comes after similar tariff warnings from ASML Holding, the world's biggest supplier of chip-making equipment, last month.

CEO Gary Dickerson flagged lower visibility and increased uncertainty in the near-term, citing \\"wide-ranging implications for the semiconductor industry\\" from the dynamic policy environment, during a post-earnings investor call.

China, Applied Materials' top revenue source in the July quarter, accounting for 35% of sales, has emerged as a growing risk as U.S. export restrictions weigh on new orders for chipmaking tool suppliers.

\\"China volatility is significantly clouding visibility into core earnings potential both geopolitically and cyclically,\\" Deutsche Bank strategists said in a note.

Read more here.

UnitedHealth Group stock rose 12% before the bell on Friday after Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway (BRK-B, BRK-A) acquired 5 million shares in the company.

A regulatory filing showed the purchase on Thursday.

Reuters reports:

Billionaire investor Buffett owned about 1.18 million shares in UnitedHealth between 2006 and 2009, before selling his entire stake in 2010 amid a broader retreat from health insurers.

The investment comes as UnitedHealth faces soaring medical costs, federal investigations, the fallout of the killing of a top executive and a cyberattack last year.

Read more here.