The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose on Friday, wrapping an eighth consecutive winning session and registering its best week of 2024.

The 30-stock index added 125.08 points, or 0.32%, to close at 39,512.84. The S&P 500 climbed 0.16%, ending at 5,222.68, while the Nasdaq Composite inched lower by 0.03% to end at 16,340.87.

The major averages also wrapped the week on a high note. The Dow posted a 2.16% gain for the period, its best week since December and its fourth positive week in a row. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both posted a third consecutive winning week, rising 1.85% and 1.14%, respectively.

Investor enthusiasm was kept in check after consumer sentiment data released Friday morning showed a big uptick in inflation expectations.

The preliminary May reading for the University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index came in at 67.4, far below a Dow Jones estimate of 76 and marking its lowest reading in about six months.

The data could indicate that "inflation is not moving in the right direction either," said Brian Nick, senior investment strategist at the Macro Institute. "You get hit from both sides — people think things are worse than the economy and they're going to stay worse, and they're worried about inflation. And that's not a happy formula for stocks or bonds."

The Federal Reserve's rate-cutting path will be further influenced by how much of a slowdown is seen in consumer spending and in hiring, Nick added. "If those things don't seem like they're completely falling off the cliff, that's good enough news for markets that are just kind of starved for rate cuts," he said.

Investors have been more optimistic lately after the Fed indicated the next move is unlikely to be a hike, pointing to a cap on interest rates that could be bullish for equities. Cooler labor data has also raised traders' confidence in the outlook for this year.

However, markets will be put to the test next week when April's consumer price index reading is released.

Goldman Sachs reaches all-time high, gains for 4th straight week and climbs 17% during that span

Goldman Sachs, the largest investment bank in the U.S., touched a record $458.75 on Friday before ending the week 3.8% higher.

Goldman has now risen for four straight weeks, climbing almost 17% during that span and single-handedly adding 431 points to the Dow Jones Industrial Average during the same period.

Looked at another way, Goldman Sachs has accounted for some 31% of the entire 1,405-point gain in the Dow Industrials over the past four weeks.

— Scott Schnipper

Dow, S&P 500 finish in the green

Here is how the major indexes closed on Friday:

• The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 125.08 points, or 0.32%, to settle at 39,512.84.
• The S&P 500 closed 0.16% higher to finish at 5,222.68.
• The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite dipped 0.03% to close at 16,340.87.

— Pia Singh

Novavax short sellers scorched in "rib crunching" short squeeze

Novavax's nearly triple-digit jump today has investors who have bet against the company running for the exits.

NVAX short sellers are down -$196M in mark-to-market losses based on today's move, according to data from S3 Partners. NVAX short interest is 44.5M shares, about one-third of the company's public float. Anything over 10% is considered elevated short interest. The company had more than doubled early in the session on news of a $1.2 billion licensing agreement with Sanofi, though has pulled back slightly.

Investors hoping to get in on the action would have a hard time. S3 reports less than 1M shares available to borrow in support of new short positions. Short sellers are paying 9.5% fees on their existing short positions and up to 10% on new short sales executed. Shorting a stock is a bearish move that involves borrowing shares, then selling them and hoping to buy them back at a lower price.

"We expect a rib crunching short squeeze in NVAX with short sellers taking huge losses on the market open and closing positions throughout the day," said Ihor Dusaniwsky, managing director at S3.

Still, NVAX short sellers are up $2.34B in mark-to-market profits since the stock hit its all-time high in February 2021, per S3 data.

— Nick Wells

Zeekr shares pop after public debut

Zeekr traded more than 32% above its initial public offering price of $21 a share on Friday, the top of its expected range, marking a strong debut for the Chinese electric vehicle company.

The company planned to sell 21 million American depository shares to raise $441 million when it begins trading on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker 'ZK.' Zeekr, which is backed by parent company Geely, a Chinese-based automotive group, makes luxury vehicle models. The company could be a competitor of Tesla, as it has reportedly outpaced Tesla in car sales in the province of Zhejiang, China, during the first three weeks of April.

For more on Zeekr's IPO, read here.

— Pia Singh

New York Stock Exchange decliners leading advancers to end the week

Stocks are headed for a positive week, but breath during Friday's session was downbeat. More than 1,600 S&P 500 companies were lower at the New York Stock Exchange, while just 1,076 advanced.

— Fred Imbert

Fed officials say they are in 'wait-and-see mode' on interest rates

Federal Reserve regional presidents Neel Kashkari of Minneapolis and Austan Goolsbee of Chicago said they are taking a patient approach to monetary policy as they weigh surprisingly strong inflation data this year.

"I'm in a wait-and-see mode. Let's get a lot more data to see if this inflation is going to continue or if it's stalling," Kashkari said during a joint live interview on CNBC. "We are all committed to getting inflation back" to the Fed's 2% goal.

Goolsbee noted the rapid disinflation that occurred in 2023 and said he is hopeful that can resume following the sticky upward trend seen so far this year.

"I don't like tying our hands even partially when we're going to get a lot of data and important information before the next meeting much less for the rest of the year," he said. "The data dogs need to do some sniffing and figure out, are we going to be on the path like what we saw last year where inflation fell almost as much as it has ever fallen in a year without a recession? Or did we kind of use up all of our good luck and this bump of the beginning of the year is actually a sign of overheating?"

— Jeff Cox

Gen Digital is the top-performing stock in the S&P 500

Gen Digital was the top-performing stock in the S&P 500 on Friday.

Shares surged more than 14% after the cybersecurity software company behind LifeLock and Norton posted its latest earnings results. In its fiscal fourth quarter, Gen Digital reported adjusted earnings of 53 cents, a 15% increase from the year-ago period. Revenue of $967 million reflected a 2% rise.

— Sarah Min

Caterpillar leads Dow's weekly gains

Construction and mining equipment company Caterpillar is up 5.2% week to date, leading the Dow Jones Industrial Average's weekly gains. The 30-stock index is up around 2.1% for the week.

Financial companies JPMorgan Chase, American Express and Visa are the following biggest gainers of the week. All three stocks have rallied more than 4% week to date.

— Hakyung Kim

These are Friday's biggest midday movers

These are the stocks making the biggest moves during midday trading:

Novavax — The biotech company soared 110% after announcing a multibillion-dollar deal with French drugmaker Sanofi to co-commercialize its Covid vaccine starting next year.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing — The chipmaker jumped 5% after reporting a 60% surge in year-over-year April revenues, helped by ongoing demand for artificial intelligence.

Sweetgreen — Sweetgreen popped 36% after surpassing first-quarter revenue expectations. The salad chain posted revenue of $158 million, slightly beating an LSEG estimate of $152 million.

Read the full list here.

— Samantha Subin

CFRA hikes S&P year-end target

CFRA's Sam Stovall hiked his year-end target for the S&P 500 to 5,415 from 4,940. The new forecast represents a 4% gain from here and a 13.5% return for the full year.

This updated target marks one of the highest on the Street, behind only the 5,500 target from John Stoltzfus at Oppenheimer. It is also 6% higher than the average projection of 5,105, according to the CNBC Pro Market Strategist Survey, which rounds up the targets from the top 14 Wall Street strategists.

— Yun Li

Alphabet falls 1% on report OpenAI to unveil search competitor

Alphabet shares slipped more than 1% before the bell following a Reuters report that OpenAI could unveil a competitor to Google search.

The report, citing sources familiar with the matter, said the announcement could come Monday.

— Samantha Subin

Consumer sentiment drops as inflation expectations jump

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index dropped due in part to a big uptick in inflation expectations.

The index's preliminary May reading came in at 67.4. That is well below a Dow Jones estimate of 76 and under the 77.2 reading for April.

"This 10 index-point decline is statistically significant and brings sentiment to its lowest reading in about six months," Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu said in a statement.

"While consumers had been reserving judgment for the past few months, they now perceive negative developments on a number of dimensions. They expressed worries that inflation, unemployment and interest rates may all be moving in an unfavorable direction in the year ahead," Hsu added.

Year-ahead inflation expectations jumped to 3.5% from 3.2%. Long-run estimates also went up to 31% from 3%.

— Fred Imbert

Inflation outlook raised sharply in big-name forecasters' survey

Inflation this year will run well above the Federal Reserve's target and remain elevated for the next several years, according to a consensus forecast released Friday from some of Wall Street's biggest economic names.

The Philadelphia Fed's quarterly Survey of Professional Forecasters puts core inflation as measured by the personal consumption expenditures price index — the central bank's preferred measure — at 2.9% through 2024. That is well above the previous forecast of 2.1% and the Fed's 2% target.

The outlook is even less optimistic when measured by the consumer price index, which is expected to average 2.5% over the next five years and 2.33% over the next 10 years, with both forecasts also above previous outlooks.

The 34 participants in the survey include economists Jan Hatzius of Goldman Sachs, Ellen Zentner at Morgan Stanley and Michael Feroli at JPMorgan Chase, among other luminous Wall Street forecasters.

— Jeff Cox

Stocks open higher Friday

The Dow Jones Industrial Average opened 127 points higher, or roughly 0.3%. The S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite were up about 0.3% each.

— Pia Singh

Stocks making the biggest moves premarket

Check out the companies making headlines before the bell:

Akamai Technologies — Shares of the cloud company fell more than 10% after issuing weak guidance for the second quarter. Akamai sees adjusted earnings ranging between $1.51 and $1.56 per share on revenue of $967 million to $986 million. Analysts polled by LSEG forecast earnings of $1.63 per share and revenue of $1 billion.

Sweetgreen — The salad chain popped 5% after Sweetgreen reported first-quarter revenue of $158 million, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $152 million. The revenue forecast was basically in line with expectations.

Array Technologies — The solar energy stock rallied nearly 17%. Array's first-quarter adjusted earnings came in at 6 cents per share on revenue of $153.4 million. Analysts polled by FactSet called for a loss of 4 cents per share on revenue of $141.2 million.

The full list can be found here.

— Hakyung Kim

Novavax shares double after signing deal with Sanofi

Novavax shares surged 125% in premarket trading after announcing it signed a multibillion-dollar deal with Sanofi to co-commercialize its Covid vaccine starting next year.

The biotech company will also develop combination shots targeting the coronavirus and flu. The licensing agreement allows Novavax to lift the "going concern" warning it issued in February 2023 on concerns over its ability to continue operating.

Sanofi will pay Novavax an upfront payment of $500 million and up to $700 million in an additional payment. That total is roughly double Novavax's current market cap of $627 million.

— Annika Kim Constantino, Michelle Fox

Zeekr prices IPO at top end of range

Zeekr, a Chinese electric vehicle maker backed by Geely, priced its initial public offering at $21 per share, implying the company is looking to raise more than $400 million in its U.S. public market debut.

The company on Friday will trade under the ticker ZK at the New York Stock Exchange. The offering also sits at the top end of Zeekr's expected range of $18 to $21, according to a regulatory filing from earlier this month.

"Through developing and offering next-generation premium BEVs and technology-driven solutions, we aspire to lead the electrification, intelligentization and innovation of the automobile industry," the company said in its SEC filing.

— Fred Imbert, Samantha Subin

Europe markets open higher

European markets opened higher on Friday as positive momentum continued into the end of the week and the U.K. posted first-quarter gross domestic product that was better than expected.

The pan-European Stoxx 600 was 0.52% higher at 8:08 a.m. London time. The U.K.'s FTSE 100 was last up 0.41%, while Germany's DAX rose 0.39% and France's CAC 40 was 0.45% higher.

— Sophie Kiderlin

Interest rates in India could stay 'higher for longer,' State Bank of India chairman says

India's interest rates are likely to stay "higher for longer" and the status quo could remain for "some time to go," according to State Bank of India Chair Dinesh Kumar Khara.

The Reserve Bank of India is unlikely to follow the timeline of other central banks, he said.

"India's central bank will probably decouple from the rest of the central banks," Khara told CNBC's "Street Signs Asia" on Friday, explaining that inflation in the country had dipped below 5%.

In April, the RBI held its benchmark interest rate unchanged at 6.5% for its seventh meeting in a row.

— Charmaine Jacob

OCBC posts record first-quarter revenue and profit, offers to take insurance subsidiary private

Singapore's second-largest bank OCBC posted record first-quarter revenue and profit, with total income rising 8% year on year to 3.63 billion Singapore dollars, or $2.68 billion, and net profit climbing 5% year on year to SG$1.98 billion.

On a quarter-on-quarter basis, revenue rose 11%, while net profit surged 22%. OCBC cited a "robust performance across all segments," highlighting that its banking operations profit was at a record high, supported by higher wealth management income and assets under management.

Separately, OCBC also offered SG$1.4 billion to privatize its insurance subsidiary Great Eastern.

The company will buy the 11.56% stake in the insurer that it does not currently own at SG$25.60 per share, representing a 36.9% premium over Great Eastern's last traded price of SG$18.70.

— Lim Hui Jie

HSBC says Xiaomi could break even on its EV sooner than expected

HSBC said it now expects Xiaomi to break even on its recently launched electric vehicle, the SU7, sooner than previously projected.

The bank predicted the EV will hit 685 million Chinese yuan, or $94.8 million, in net profit by the end of 2026, versus its prior expectation of about 810 million yuan by 2028.

HSBC is bullish on Xiaomi's EV shipments over the next two years, citing the company's higher-than-expected order backlog of more than 88,000 units and strong deliveries of more than 7,000 units, as of April 30.

Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi launched its SU7 EV just ahead of the Easter holiday this year.

— Shreyashi Sanyal

Individual investors were last this 'neutral' on stocks eight months ago, AAII says

The percentage of individual investors who are neutral — neither bullish nor bearish — about the outlook for stock prices over the coming six months widened to 35.4% from 29% in the latest survey from the American Association of Individual Investors, the highest such reading since last September and above the historical average of 31.5%.

Bullishness rose to 40.8% from 38.5%, above the historical average of 37.5% for the 26th time in 27 weeks.

Bearish sentiment slumped to 23.8% of those polled, down from 32.5% last week and the historical average of 31%. It was the first time in four weeks that pessimism was below its historical average.

Contrarians who like to bet against the crowd say that rising bullishness means investors have less cash to put to work in the market and have less buying in front of them than behind them. Rising bearishness means the reverse — there is more money to invest and more selling has been done.

— Scott Schnipper

Stocks making the biggest moves after hours

Check out the companies making headlines in extended trading:

Yelp — Shares of the restaurant review site slid 6% as Yelp posted light second-quarter revenue guidance. The company reported first-quarter earnings of 20 cents a share, surpassing analysts' estimates of 6 cents a share, per LSEG. Revenue for the period came in line with expectations, however, at $333 million.

Sweetgreen — The salad chain popped 5% after Sweetgreen reported first-quarter revenue of $158 million, topping the LSEG consensus estimate of $152 million. Earnings were not immediately comparable with estimates.

Akamai Technologies — The cloud company slid nearly 9%, tumbling on the back of weak guidance for the second quarter. Akamai sees adjusted earnings ranging between $1.51 and $1.56 per share on revenue of $967 million to $986 million. Analysts polled by LSEG called for earnings of $1.63 per share and revenue of $1 billion.

Read the full list here.

— Sarah Min

Stock futures open little changed Thursday night

Stock futures opened little changed.

Futures linked to the 30-stock Dow rose 33 points, or 0.08%. S&P 500 futures climbed 0.04%, while Nasdaq 100 futures gained 0.04%.

— Sarah Min