Dow rises more than 200 points as Wall Street heads for weekly gain: Live updates

Consumer sentiment in November moved lower following the presidential election but was still better than October, according to a closely watched gauge from the University of Michigan released Friday.

The last of three readings showed the sentiment index at 71.8, better than the 70.5 from October but down 1.3 points from the second reading. Economists surveyed by Dow Jones had been looking for 73.5.

“In a mirror image of November 2020 (see chart), the expectations index surged for Republicans and fell for Democrats this month, a reflection of the two groups’ incongruous views of how [President-elect Donald Trump’s] policies will influence the economy,” survey director Joanne Hsu said.

The survey also showed misgivings about inflation: The one-year outlook nudged lower to 2.6%, the lowest since December 2020, while the 5-year rose to 3.2%, tied for the highest since June 2008.

—Jeff Cox

Activity in both the manufacturing and services sectors accelerated in November, according to surveys of purchase managers released by S&P Global on Friday.

The flash PMI reading for services moved up to 57.0, a two-point increase from October and the highest reading in 32 months. On the manufacturing side, the index nudged higher to 48.8, up slightly from October and the highest level in four months.

The manufacturing reading met the Dow Jones estimate while the services index was slightly better than the 55.0 forecast.

The indexes measure the percentage of companies reporting growth, so anything above 50 represents expansion.

—Jeff Cox

Check out some of the companies making headlines in premarket trading:

• Intuit — Stock in the financial software firm pulled back about 3% after its earnings guidance for the current quarter missed analyst estimates. Intuit forecast second-quarter earnings of $2.55 to $2.61 per share, while analysts polled by FactSet were looking for a profit of $3.25 per share.
• Flutter Entertainment – Shares rose more than 1% after Goldman Sachs initiated coverage of the stock with a buy rating and a price target that reflects almost 20% upside from Thursday’s close. The bank cited stronger U.S. margins and share buybacks as catalysts for growth ahead.
• Gap — Shares of the clothing retailer surged more than 20% after the company upped its full-year outlook for the third time in 2024. Gap now expects sales to advance by 1.5% to 2%, compared with a previous outlook that said sales would be “up slightly” on the year.

Read the full list here.

— Brian Evans

President-elect Donald Trump‘s new choice for attorney general, Pam Bondi, is much better for tech platforms than his former pick, Matt Gaetz, according to TD Cowen.

Trump named Bondi his intended nominee Thursday evening, just hours after Gaetz withdrew from consideration. Bondi, a former Florida attorney general, is now a lobbyist working on online privacy issues, among other things, at Ballard Partners. The firm represents Google and Amazon.

After the Justice Department’s proposed remedies in the Google antitrust case on Thursday, a possible settlement now takes on “heightened importance,” TD Cowen policy analyst Paul Gallant wrote in a note Thursday.

“We view Ms. Bondi’s likely leadership of DOJ as a materially better starting point for a settlement with the Trump Administration than had Gaetz been confirmed,” he said. “We would make the same observation about a possible settlement with Apple, which DOJ sued for antitrust violations six months ago (case goes to trial in mid-2026).”

— Michelle Fox

Piper Sandler downgraded Sunrun, anticipating further cash generation uncertainty for the company under a higher-for-longer interest rate environment.

Analyst Kashy Harrison lowered her rating on the struggling solar panel and battery storage company to neutral from overweight. She also cut her price target by $12 to $11, which suggests 7.6% potential upside for the stock.

Sunrun’s shares have plunged nearly 48% this year, with losses piling as fears that President-elect Donald Trump could repeal the Inflation Reduction Act — which has supported tax credits to expand solar energy — have led to a downbeat outlook on solar stocks.

“Rates remain elevated, Republicans control the Presidency and Congress; as a result, equity performance has been dismal … Thus, while some curtailment is expected, we see a low probability of a hard landing on the IRA as it pertains to power supply (i.e. ITC/PTC) or manufacturing credits,” Harrison said. “If our base case expectation comes to fruition (commercial ITC remains; homeowner ITC repealed), we’d expect a volatile resi solar market moving forward.”

— Pia Singh

Don’t sweat the early losses in futures too much, advised Adam Crisafulli of Vital Knowledge.

“Stocks are getting hit in Europe and the US following some downbeat Eurozone flash PMI data, although the magnitude of the S&P futures pullback at 4amET is more a reflection of thin liquidity than extremely negative news, and thus it’s likely prices will rebound,” he said in a note.

— Fred Imbert

Two retail stocks surged in after hours trading following their quarterly reports.

Shares of Gap climbed 15% after beating estimates on the top and bottom lines and raising its full-year sales guidance. Ross Stores popped 7% after reporting earnings per share of $1.48, ahead of the $1.40 projected by analysts, according to LSEG.

Check out more after hours movers here.

— Jesse Pound

Wall Street is headed for its second positive week in three across the board, if the stock market holds up on Friday.

• The Nasdaq Composite is up 1.56% week to date
• The S&P 500 is up 1.33% week to date
• The Dow is up 0.98% week to date.

Additionally, Thursday’s 1.06% rally for the Dow was its best day since Nov. 6.

— Jesse Pound, Christopher Hayes

Energy stock Texas Pacific Land is set to join the S&P 500 next week, with current constituent Marathon Oil being officially acquired by ConocoPhillips.

S&P Dow Jones Indices announced the move as part of a series of index changes on Thursday evening. In corresponding moves, Mueller Industries will slide up to the S&P MidCap 400, and Atlas Energy Solutions will join the S&P SmallCap 600.

The moves will take effect prior to the open of trading on Nov. 26.

Texas Pacific Land, based in west Texas, has a market cap of around $35 billion.

— Jesse Pound

Stock futures opened slightly lower on Thursday evening.

Nasdaq 100 futures saw the biggest move, falling about 0.2%. Dow and S&P 500 futures were down around 0.1%.

— Jesse Pound