Stock Market Ticks up As Dow Jones Continues Hot Streak

The Dow Jones has now marked seven days of positive trading. Though the gains from day to day have not been substantial, they are adding up to create an historic hot streak.

The Dow Jones is up 0.40% for Friday morning, with the S&P 500 up by 0.42%. The Nasdaq Composite had a similar gain of 0.44% as the market opened on Friday.

The expectation today is that the major market indices will close high by the end of the day as inflation news was mostly mild for the week. It is inflation that is partly to blame for low recent weeks of trading, and the only major inflation news the market had to digest this week was the unemployment claims data.

Jobless claims are up higher than they have been in months, with US unemployment claims reaching 231,000 in the most recent data. That is the highest we have seen these numbers in eight months. Those numbers dropped on Thursday, and they will inform the Federal Reserve on its interest rate cut policy.

We anticipate no cuts for now from the Fed, which will likely be reiterated at their next meeting. The soonest most analysts anticipate interest rate cuts is September now.

Stocks to Watch for the Weekend

For the last day of trading for the week, there are a few stocks that are moving quickly that we want to point out to you. These are likely to have some momentum today that could carry into Monday as trading opens next week.

Novavax (NVAX) just signed a deal to make a new vaccine, and its stock shot up by 131% as a result. This may be the biggest jump we will see from this stock, but it will likely continue to rise for a few more days as the news spreads.

Apple (AAPL) stock is in sharp decline today after pulling an advertisement that received backlash.

International Paper Co. (IP), a pulp and paper producer, may be bought by a Brazilian company Suzano for $15 billion. The news caused their stock to drop 2.46%. That may turn around quickly if the sale goes through.