10 things to watch in the stock market Friday including more bullishness on Eli Lilly

1. Wall Street is lower Friday morning after a strong session Thursday, which put the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite on track to record their biggest weekly gains since November 2023. Better-than-expected retail sales and initial jobless claims helped fuel Thursday’s move, further demonstrating that good news about the U.S. economy is good news for stocks.

2. Applied Materials reported a better-than-expected quarter, but its fourth-quarter revenue guidance was merely in line with expectations. That’s putting some pressure on the semiconductor equipment stock, which closed Thursday’s session up nearly 31% year to date.

3. A handful of analysts boosted their price targets on Walmart after the retail giant’s strong earnings report sent the stock to a record close Thursday. TD Cowen and Jefferies both raised their PTs to $85 a share from $80 and maintained their buy-equivalent ratings. Jefferies noted that Walmart executives said the company is using generative AI to make picking online orders more efficient. Despite questions on whether AI investments will pan out, that sounds like a real-word use case to us.