UnitedHealth's Best Day Since 2008, Intel's Best Weekly Gain In Decades: What's Moving Markets Friday?

Major tech-heavy indices edged lower from record highs by midday Friday in New York, as investors adopted a cautious stance ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting and after data showed a dip in consumer confidence alongside mounting inflation concerns.

• INTC shares are breaking a key technical resistance. Check the chart here.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq 100 eased 0.3% and 0.6%, respectively, weighed down by chipmakers following a disappointing guidance from Applied Materials Inc. AMAT.

Intel Corp. INTC bucked the sector trend, climbing by a further 7% on reports the U.S. administration is considering taking a stake in the company to bolster domestic chip manufacturing. Intel's stock is up 26% for the week — its biggest weekly gain since January 1975.

The Dow Jones outperformed, rising 0.2% to break above the 45,000-point mark, supported by a rally in pharmaceutical names.

The biggest outperformer was UnitedHealth Group Inc. UNH, which rallied 14% — its strongest day since 2008 — after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway announced it had bought shares, which had previously tumbled by over 40% year-to-date.

On the macro front, retail sales for July rose by 0.5% on a month-over-month basis, coming in as expected. However, some consumer weakness surfaced in the latest University of Michigan’s flash consumer sentiment report for August.

On the macro front, July retail sales rose 0.5% month-over-month, in line with forecasts.

However, the University of Michigan's preliminary August survey showed consumer sentiment slipping to 58.6 from 61.7, missing expectations of 62. Inflation expectations rose sharply, with the one-year outlook climbing to 4.9% from 4.5% and the five-year measure — a key gauge of longer-term inflation risk — up to 3.9% from 3.4%.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar gave back Thursday's gains despite a hotter-than-expected Producer Price Index report earlier in the week.

Commodities traded mixed: crude oil fell 1.2% to $63 a barrel ahead of the Trump-Putin meeting, gold was steady at $3,335 per ounce, and silver slipped 0.2% to $37.90.

Bitcoin BTC/USD extended its pullback, down 1% to $117,000, marking a second straight day of losses.

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The Vanguard S&P 500 ETF VOO was down 0.076% at $592.40.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA inched 0.2% up to $430.23.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ eased down 0.39% to $577.61
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM was down 0.36% at $227.41.
• The Health Care Select Sector SPDR Fund XLV outperformed, up 1.88%; the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLB was up 0.13%%.

Stocks On The Move Friday

• The rally in UnitedHealth sparked a broad rebound in beaten-down pharmaceutical stocks, with Centene Corp. CNC climbing 6.2%, Moderna Inc. MRNA gaining 6.63%, and Molina Healthcare Inc. MOH advancing 4.88%.
• Eli Lilly & Co. LLY added further momentum to the sector, rising 3.18% after announcing a 170% price increase for its weight-loss and diabetes 2 drug Mounjaro (tirzepatide) in the U.K.
• Nu Holdings Ltd. NU rallied 10% after Goldman Sachs raised the price target from $19 to $20.

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