Weekly US Stock Market Summary
US stocks closed a largely positive week with the Dow Jones Industrial Average and S&P 500 reaching fresh all-time highs. The blue-chip Dow crossed the 49,000 milestone for the first time, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite gained roughly 2%.
Friday's "Goldilocks" jobs report was the week's defining event. The US economy added 50,000 jobs in December—slightly missing the 60,000 forecast—while the unemployment rate dipped to 4.4%, while economists had forecast 4.5%. The data painted a picture of a cooling but resilient labor market ("low hiring, low firing"), reinforcing investor expectations that the Federal Reserve will continue cutting interest rates to support the soft landing.
Energy markets and sentiment were buoyed by the stunning news that the US military had captured Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro. Chevron (CVX), the key US oil player in the region, saw volatile trading as the market repriced the potential for normalized Venezuelan oil exports.
The AI trade shifted focus from chips to power. Meta Platforms (META) announced major nuclear power deals with Oklo and Vistra to fuel its data centers, causing shares of the nuclear energy firms to surge double-digits.
The materials sector rallied on reports that Rio Tinto is in talks to acquire Glencore, a deal that would create a $ 200 billion global mining giant.
Despite lingering noise from the recent government shutdown, bullish sentiment remains intact. Investors are betting that the combination of falling inflation, steady growth, and Fed easing will sustain the rally well into 2026.
That is all I could summarise about what happened in the stock market last week. Have a great weekend!
$VOOV (Vanguard S&P 500 Value ETF)... Show More
Not investment advice. The author may have financial interests in the mentioned instruments.
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Sun Aug 16 2026 01:13:10 GMT+0000 (Coordinated Universal Time)
