Stocks Head For Weekly Gains, US Treasury Yields Fall Below 4.5%: What's Driving Markets Friday?

Stocks are headed for weekly gains, with the Dow Jones dipping slightly and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq trading just above the flatline Friday. Traders are digesting weaker-than-expected retail sales and the potential for peace talks between Russia and Ukraine. 

Retail sales in the U.S. fell 0.9% month-over-month in January, significantly worse than the anticipated 0.1% drop. However, markets are largely shrugging off the weaker-than-expected retail sales figures which were likely affected by January's cold weather and California wildfires, as well as the upward revision of December results.

Geopolitical tensions eased slightly after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy told reporters at the Munich Security Conference on Friday that he is willing to participate in Trump’s peace initiative and eventual talks with Russia.

The price of Crude Oil slid another 0.52% Friday and is down 9.9% over the past month as the market reacted to President Donald Trump‘s plans to impose reciprocal tariffs on trade partners and news of potential peace talks to end the war in Ukraine.

The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note fell to below the 4.5% threshold on Friday, extending its pullback after January's retail sales data may have indicated some weakness in the U.S. consumer. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT rose 0.7%. 

Bitcoin BTC/USD rose above the $98,000 level on a midday rally Friday and XRP XRP/USD climbed more than 7%. 

Friday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1 day % chg.
Nasdaq 100	19,988.34	0.20%
S&P 500	6,116.90	0.03%
Dow Jones	44,602.67	-0.24%
Russell 2000	2,278.93	-0.14%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY inched up 0.3% to $609.92
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA was down 0.23% at $446.24
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ rose 0.27% to $537.34. 
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM eased 0.14% to $225.82.
• The Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY dipped 0.14% to $226.78
• The Energy Select Sector SPDR Fund XLE rose 0.72% to $90.36. 

Friday's Stock Movers: 

Shares of Serve Robotics Inc. SERV and SoundHound AI, Inc. SOUN tanked after NVIDIA Corp.'s NVDA latest 13F filing revealed it had dissolved its stakes in both companies. 

Stocks reacting to company earnings reports included: 

• DraftKings, Inc. DKNG 
• American Axle & Manufacturing Holdings, Inc. AXL 
• Moderna, Inc. MRNA 
• JFrog, Ltd. FROG 
• Wynn Resorts Limited WYNN 
• Roku, Inc. ROKU 
• Palo Alto Networks, Inc. PANW
• DexCom, Inc. DXCM 
• Procore Technologies, Inc. PCOR 
• Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN 
• Udemy, Inc. UDMY 
• Nu Skin Enterprises, Inc. NUS 
• Bio-Rad Laboratories, Inc. BIO 

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