Key Takeaways
- The S&P 500 eked out a gain of 0.1% on Friday, March 21, 2025, as the index snapped its weekly losing streak.
- Supermicro shares surged following an upgrade from JPMorgan analysts, who expect strong demand for Supermicro’s servers built with Nvidia’s Blackwell chips.
- Shares of Micron Technology tumbled as concerns about the chipmaker’s gross margins overshadowed strong earnings results.
Major U.S. equities indexes ticked higher on the final day of the trading week, snapping their weekly losing streaks.
The S&P 500 and Dow eked out a gain of 0.1% Friday, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq ended 0.5% higher. All three posted gains for the week, with the Dow adding 1.2%, the S&P 500 advancing 0.5%, and the Nasdaq edging up 0.2%.
Super Micro Computer (SMCI) shares gained the most of any S&P 500 constituent on Friday, surging 7.8% after JPMorgan upgraded the stock to “neutral” from “underweight.” The analysts suggested Supermicro could be poised to benefit from strong demand for AI infrastructure and its servers that incorporate Nvidia’s (NVDA) Blackwell platform.
Tesla (TSLA) shares also rose, adding 5.3%. CEO Elon Musk held an all-hands meeting with employees Thursday evening in which he told staff to “hang on” to their stock in an effort to shore up confidence following a rough stretch that has seen the stock shed half its value in the past few months.
Boeing (BA) shares advanced 3.1% after President Trump awarded the aircraft manufacturer with a contract to build the F-47, the U.S. Air Force’s next-generation fighter jet. While financial details were not disclosed, The Wall Street Journal estimated that research, development, and acquisition costs could exceed $50 billion. Shares of defense contractor Lockheed Martin (LMT), which lost out to its rival, slipped 5.8%.
Micron Technology (MU) shares tumbled 8%, posting the weakest daily performance in the S&P 500. The memory and storage chipmaker posted better-than-expected sales and profits for its fiscal second quarter, but worries about its gross margin trajectory raised concerns, prompting analysts at Citi to trim their price target on the stock.
Shares of Texas Pacific Land (TPL), which owns major acreage in the oil-rich Permian Basin, fell 7.2% following reports that several company insiders sold off significant positions in the company. Executives recently offloading shares included the company’s CFO as well as its senior vice president and general counsel. Investors often interpret selling by top executives as a lack of confidence in a company’s prospects.
FedEx (FDX) missed quarterly profit estimates and cut its full-year outlook, citing economic uncertainty. Analysts from UBS and Bank of America lowered their price targets on FedEx stock, and shares of the package delivery giant dropped 6.5% on Friday.
Steelmaker Nucor (NUE) provided a lower-than-expected profit forecast for the first quarter of 2025, and its shares slipped 5.8%. The company said soft steel pricing is pressuring its average selling prices, forecasting a sequential earnings decline from its steel products segment.