Stocks Rise, Netflix Soars To Record Highs, Oil Falls Below $70, Gold Miners Rally: What's Driving Markets Friday?

Wall Street was in positive territory in Friday midday trading, buoyed by upbeat quarterly earnings reports that kept investor sentiment bullish.

Netflix Inc. NFLX surged 10% to fresh record highs after delivering a strong earnings beat. The tech-heavy Nasdaq 100 rose 0.8%, pushing its weekly performance into positive territory for the sixth consecutive week.

The S&P 500 and Dow also edged higher, both on track for the sixth straight week of gains, with the Dow flirting with all-time highs.

Gold miners led industry performance as gold prices hit new record levels above $2,700 per ounce. The VanEck Gold Miners ETF GDX soared over 4%, hitting the highest level in over four years. Friday is poised to mark the fourth straight session of gains for both gold and silver, with silver jumping over 3%, heading for its best day since late September.

West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude prices tumbled more than 2%, slipping below the $70-per-barrel mark. WTI is down over 8% for the week, on pace for its worst weekly decline since January.

Bitcoin BTC/USD climbed 2.8% to above $68,800.

Friday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day % change
Nasdaq 100	20,352.25	0.8%
S&P 500	5,870.75	0.5%
Dow Jones	43,300.82	0.1%
Russell 2000	2,279.45	-0.1%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.5% to $585.12.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA inched 0.1% higher to $433.01.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ rose 0.8% to $495.21.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM stalled at $226.03.
• The Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund XLC outperformed, up 0.9%. The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE lagged, down 0.6%.

Friday’s Stock Movers

• Stocks moving in reaction to earnings reports were Intuitive Surgical Inc. ISRG, up over 9%, Crown Holdings Inc. CCK, up over 4%, Western Alliance Bancorporation WAL, down 6%, American Express Company AXP, down 2.4%, Procter & Gamble Co. PG down 0.4%, Schlumberger N.V. SLB down 3.3%, Fifth Third Bancorp FITB, down 1.7%, Ally Financial Inc. ALLY, down 1% and Comerica Inc. CMA, up 4%.
• Lamb Weston Holdings Inc. LW soared 10% following a report indicating that activist investor Jana Partners has built a 5% stake in the company.
• CVS Health Corp. CVS fell over 6% after the company replaced its CEO and cut its third-quarter outlook.

Read Next:

• Netflix ‘Should Continue To Outperform’: 6 Analysts On Streaming Stock’s Q3 Earnings

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