S&P 500 rises to a record as benchmark heads toward winning week: Live updates

Here are the stocks on the move midday:

Nvidia – Shares of the AI darling fell 1% after a rare negative call on Wall Street. New Street Research downgraded Nvidia to hold from buy, citing limited upside given the big run already this year. It’s only the second downgrade of Nvidia this year.

Macy’s – Shares of the retailer jumped more than 12% after the Wall Street Journal reported that the investor group of Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management increased their buyout offer. The group is now offering about $24.80 per share for Macy’s, up from $24 previously, the report said.

Crypto stocks — Stocks tied to the cryptocurrency plummeted after the trustee for the now defunct Mt. Gox exchange said the company has begun making payments in both bitcoin and bitcoin cash to creditors. Marathon Digital was down 6% following the news, while Microstrategy and Coinbase were each down more than 3%. Bitcoin miner Iris Energy tumbled 6%, while fellow miner CleanSpark fell 2.5%. Trading platforms Robinhood and Riot Platforms were both down more than 2% as well.

Read the full list here.

— Sean Conlon

Investors can expect two interest rate cuts this year, according to David Kelly, JPMorgan Asset Management’s chief global strategist.

Friday’s jobs report adds to the view that the economy is tightening at a glacial pace, Kelly said. While it is hard to read into market movement on the Friday after the Independence Day holiday, he said traders can reasonably expect the Federal Reserve to decrease the cost of borrowing money in September and December.

“What we’re seeing is the economy is cooling, but it’s cooling slowly,” he said on CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “That’s very much the theme of this jobs report.”

One detail of the report he highlighted: Despite the labor market remaining tight, it is not resulting in outsized wage growth, as evidenced by average hourly pay figures.

Kelly said he is now looking toward next week’s consumer price index release, which he said should be down to 3.2% on an annualized basis. That can push the personal consumption index lower, he said, and give the Fed justification to start lowering rates in the near future.

The strategy chief advised investors to ensure they are properly diversified within the stock market. That is because a correction could hit the rallying megacap technology stocks particularly hard, Kelly warned.

— Alex Harring

Traders upped their bets on a September interest rate cut following Friday’s nonfarm payrolls report for June.

The report, which showed slightly better-than-expected job creation and a bump up in the unemployment rate to 4.1%, helped raise expectations that the Federal Reserve would ease when it meets on Sept. 17-18.

Odds of a quarter-point cut increased to about 75% Friday morning, up from 64% a week ago, according to the CME Group’s FedWatch monitor of fed funds futures pricing. Expectations for a second reduction in December also increased, up to 72% from about 53% last week.

— Jeff Cox

The June jobs report showed uneven growth, with health care and social assistance and government jobs as the key areas of strength. Together, those areas accounted for roughly three-fourths of last month’s job growth.

On the other hand, employment for professional and business services fell by 17,000 jobs. Jeffrey Roach, chief economist at LPL Financial, pointed out that the unemployment rate ticked up among workers with at least a bachelor’s degree

“The increase in the unemployment rate, especially for those with at least a Bachelor’s degree, suggests a modest cooling of the labor market. So far, we don’t see apocalyptic signs within the labor market, but investors should be wary when the labor market is supported by government payrolls,” Roach said in a note Friday morning.

Check out the chart breaking down June’s jobs growth by sector here.

— Jesse Pound

Federal Reserve officials at their June meeting showed little inclination to start lowering interest rates until they see better progress on inflation, according to minutes released Wednesday.

Participants at the June 11-12 session of the Federal Open Market Committee said they did not envision cuts “until additional information had emerged to give them greater confidence that inflation was moving sustainably toward the Committee’s 2 percent objective,” the summary stated.

Officials debated over the future of policy, with some members standing ready to hike if inflation turns higher, while others noted the importance of responding to economic weakness.

— Jeff Cox

Shares of Nvidia have jumped about 3% since the start of the week, and look poised to snap a two-week losing streak.

The leading artificial intelligence chipmaker pulled back a combined 6.4% in the last two weeks of June as some investors consolidated gains in the sector.

The stock slipped less than 1% during Friday’s session after New Street Research downgraded the chipmaker to neutral. Shares are up 159% since the start of 2024.

The S&P 500 opened just above flat, while the Nasdaq Composite was 0.15% higher shortly after 9:30 a.m. ET. The Dow lost 55 points, or about 0.1%.

— Pia Singh

Several U.S. Treasury yields reached lows going back to April on Friday as traders analyzed the latest labor data.

The well-followed 2-year yield moved as far down as 4.631%. That marks its lowest level since April 1, when it touched 4.595%.

The 1-year yield slipped as low as 5.019%. That is its lowest going back to April 4, when it recorded 4.997%.

The 6-month yield at one point fell to 5.297%, its worst point since April 5. On that day, the yield hit 5.294%.

— Alex Harring, Gina Francolla

June’s job report data should push central bankers to cut interest rates this fall, according to Renaissance Macro Research.

“This is not a close call,” the firm wrote in a July 5 post on social media site X. “The unemployment rate is climbing & payroll growth is slowing. Conditions in the labor market are cooling off. The trade-offs for the Fed have shifted. If they don’t cut this month, they ought to make a strong signal a cut is coming in September.”

The unemployment rate rose to 4.1% in June, the Labor Department reported Friday. That came out higher than expectations for the jobless rate to hold steady at 4%. The U.S. economy added 206,000 jobs during the month, signaling continued strength in the labor market.

— Pia Singh

June’s payrolls report showed a gain of 206,000 jobs for the U.S. economy, the Labor Department said Friday. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones were expecting a gain of 200,000. The unemployment rate ticked up to 4.1%.

The June number is down from the previous month. The May reading was revised down to 218,000 from 272,000.

— Jesse Pound

These are the stocks moving the most in premarket trading:

• Macy’s — Shares of the retailer jumped more than 6% following a Wall Street Journal report that an investor grouped has hiked its takeout offer.
• Tesla — The electric vehicle manufacturer popped 2%, marking a continuing comeback after its second-quarter vehicle deliveries number beat analysts’ estimates earlier this week.
• Novo Nordisk — U.S.-traded shares of the pharmaceutical giant rose 1.9% premarket even after a study from Harvard linked semaglutide, which is present in Novo Nordisk’s Ozempic and Wegovy, to an increased risk of a rare eye disease.

Read the full list of stocks moving here.

— Lisa Kailai Han

Stocks tied to the price of bitcoin slid after the cryptocurrency dropped 5% to its lowest level since February, as the now defunct Mt. Gox exchange has begun repayments to creditors, as expected.

Coinbase and MicroStrategy each lost 5% in premarket trading. Among miners, Iris Energy tumbled 8%, while CleanSpark fell 5%. Marathon Digital and Riot Platforms were down 6% and 4%, respectively.

“Most of the selling has been attributed to the Mt. Gox repayments, though there are other factors at play as well,” Joel Kruger, market strategist at LMAX Group, told CNBC. “The story around the German government selling bitcoin has added to the downside pressure which has only been further intensified on leveraged long liquidations and a major technical break in the price of bitcoin below the May low at $56,500.”

“None of this has been shocking or unexpected and there has been nothing that has fundamentally altered the highly constructive outlook for bitcoin and crypto assets, suggesting additional downside should be limited in favor of a strong recovery, as medium- and longer-term players look to take advantage and build exposure into the dip,” he added.

— Tanaya Macheel

With just one day left in the holiday-shortened trading week, the three major indexes are on track for gains.

The Nasdaq Composite and S&P 500 have climbed more than 2.5% and 1%, respectively, this week. Both closed at new highs and touched fresh intraday records on Wednesday.

The Dow has added 0.5% this week.

The New York Stock Exchange closed early on Wednesday and was dark on Thursday for Independence Day.

— Alex Harring

Traders are awaiting Friday morning’s all-important jobs report.

Economists polled by Dow Jones are expecting the following for June:

• Nonfarm payrolls increase by 200,000 jobs.
• The unemployment rate will hold steady at 4%.
• Average hourly wages climb 0.3% from the prior month.
• Average hourly wages to be 3.9% higher than the same month a year ago.

Read more about what to expect here.

— Alex Harring, Jeff Cox

Futures tied to the S&P 500 futures were little changed shortly after 6 p.m. ET. Dow futures added 0.1%, while Nasdaq 100 futures slipped 0.2%.

— Alex Harring