Wall Street's benchmark S&P 500 (
SP500) index on Friday closed out both the week and August in positive territory. The latter achievement was especially impressive considering the plunge experienced by the average at the beginning of the month.
In what is now infamously known as "Black Monday 2024," the S&P (
SP500) slumped 3% on August 5 due to a combination of the unwinding of the yen carry trade and growth fears sparked by the July nonfarm payrolls report. The rest of the month was all about
rebounding, driven by economic data on inflation and retail sales that helped becalm recession fears and a
signal by the Federal Reserve that it was ready for interest rate cuts.
The spotlight this week was on chip giant Nvidia's (
NVDA) results. The company showed the AI craze was very much real after more than
doubling quarterly revenue. However, for market participants now used to blowout results and guidance, the firm's latest outlook failed to meet up to the loftiest of expectations.
For the week, the S&P (
SP500) climbed
+0.2%, while the blue-chip Dow (
DJI) advanced
+0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (
COMP:IND) slipped
-0.9%. Read a preview of next week's major events in
Seeking Alpha's Catalyst Watch.