The major U.S. stock indices rose collectively, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average increasing by 0.69%, the Nasdaq Composite by 0.80%, and the S&P 500 by 0.41%. The labor data revealed that the growth in non-farm payrolls was the lowest since December 2020, with unemployment steady at 4.1%.
S&P Dow Jones Indices announced that Nvidia (NVDA, Financial) will replace Intel in the Dow Jones Industrial Average. Changes also include Sherwin-Williams replacing Dow Chemical and Vistra Corp. replacing The AES Corp. in the Dow Jones Utilities Average. These adjustments reflect the growing importance of the semiconductor and materials industries.
Large tech stocks mostly rose, with Amazon surging over 6% due to strong growth in its cloud and advertising sectors. Nvidia increased nearly 2%, Microsoft rose close to 1%, while Apple saw a slight decline. Intel's strong earnings exceeded expectations, causing its stock to rise nearly 8%.
Meanwhile, Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) plunged over 10%, marking its worst weekly performance. The company has faced financial reporting delays and a short-seller attack citing accounting issues. Auditor EY resigned, raising concerns about potential suspension or delisting. AMD has revised its loan agreements and postponed financial reporting deadlines.
Chinese stocks showed mixed performance, with the Nasdaq Golden Dragon China Index up by 0.10%. EV makers such as Li Auto, Xpeng, and NIO all posted gains, whereas other popular Chinese stocks like Alibaba and JD.com experienced declines. Nvidia's inclusion positions it among the Dow's trillion-dollar market cap firms alongside Apple and Microsoft, with Alphabet and Meta yet to be included.
The Tokyo Stock Exchange will extend its trading hours to 5.5 hours beginning November 5. This decision follows a major system failure that halted trading in 2020. The new schedule concludes trading 30 minutes later and introduces a closing auction system to determine closing prices.
