Stock market today: Dow, S&P 500, Nasdaq futures tick up as Trump and Xi hold call on trade

The major US stock indexes were little changed after Presidents Trump and Xi wrapped up a multi-hour phone call.

After briefly pulling back from earlier gains, the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) hovered above the flat line, the S&P 500 (^GSPC) climbed 0.15%, and the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) moved up 0.3%.

Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the two world leaders made progress discussing issues including trade, the approval of a TikTok deal, and Russia’s war on Ukraine. Trump called the discussion “very productive” and said he’s planning a trip to China early next year. He also said he will meet Xi at the APEC Summit in South Korea.

Following Trump’s call with Chinese President Xi Jinping Friday, the US president posted on Truth Social:

“We made progress on many very important issues including Trade, Fentanyl, the need to bring the War between Russia and Ukraine to an end, and the approval of the TikTok Deal.”

“The call was a very good one, we will be speaking again by phone, appreciate the TikTok approval, and both look forward to meeting at APEC!”

The details of the TikTok deal are not yet clear. The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday that the deal would involve a consortium of investors including Oracle (ORCL), Silver Lake, and Andreessen Horowitz taking an 80% stake in the company. TikTok’s existing US users would reportedly be asked to move to a new app the company is testing, and Oracle would handle the user data on its servers in Texas.

NANO Nuclear Energy (NNE) shares jumped nearly 15% on Friday, extending a recent upswing.

The gain came after the nuclear energy tech company unveiled a proposed $6.2 million sale of its ODIN microreactor design to UK-based Cambridge Atom Works.

After a review of its product portfolio, Nano decided that a sale of its low-pressure-cooled Odin design would enable the company to move ahead more smoothly with its lineup of gas-cooled reactors, its chairman Jay Yu said in a statement on Wednesday.

He added it would potentially allow Nano to recoup its investment in Odin and to focus on developing other reactor technology.

Last year, Hunterbrook published a report calling into question the company’s business model and products, casting doubt on its valuation and ability to deliver nuclear microreactors to market on its promised timeline.

Nano’s stock is one of the most shorted stocks in the US, according to S&P Global data, with nearly 24% of shares outstanding on loan.

Last week, the company was awarded a US Air Force contract.

Oracle (ORCL) nudged 1.6% higher early Friday, as US President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping held a call in which they were expected to complete a TikTok deal that could involve the software giant.

The gain putting the stock up 3% over the past five trading sessions and 28% for the month.

Oracle is reportedly part of a consortium of investors set to assume an 80% stake in TikTok under the preliminary framework for the deal, which as hammered out in trade talks between US and Chinese officials in Madrid earlier this week. The framework would allow TikTok, which is owned by Chinese tech giant ByteDance, to continue operating in the US amid an impending ban.

Oracle’s involvement in the deal is seen as a positive because it would likely allow the cloud provider to keep its partnership with TikTok, storing the social media app’s American user data on its servers. Morningstar analyst Luke Yang estimates that business from TikTok accounted for 5% of the revenue seen by Oracle Cloud Infrastructure (OCI), its cloud business, in its 2025 fiscal year.

” TikTok has always been a major customer of OCI,” Yang told Yahoo Finance.

Oracle stock has been on an upswing since its latest quarterly results, when the company projected its cloud revenue would reach $144 billion by its 2030 fiscal year — likely driven by a $300 billion deal with OpenAI.

Wall Street cheered the results, but concerns have emerged over Oracle’s reliance on OpenAI and the ChatGPT maker’s ability to fund its deal with the software giant.

US stocks edged higher on Friday at the open, eyeing fresh records.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose more than 0.2%, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) climbed 0.3%. The gains kept an advance on Thursday’s all-time highs in play.

The moves come as a highly anticipated call between President Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping is underway, with the fate of TikTok and potentially the trade relationship between the world’s two largest economies in the balance, Yahoo Finance’s Ben Werschkul reports. The call began at 8 am E.T. on Friday.

Citi (C) analyst Christopher Danely downgraded Intel (INTC) shares to Sell from Hold on Friday, following a rally in the stock.

Shares in the chipmaker surged Thursday on news of a partnership with AI bellwether Nvidia (NVDA). But Danley believes the pact, which sees Nvidia taking a $5 billion stake in Intel, isn’t as helpful to Intel as it seems.

The deal also involves Nvidia using Intel’s CPUs — central processing units, or traditional computer chips that are the “brain” of a computer — in its AI server systems. For its part, Intel will use Nvidia’s AI tech in its CPUs for personal computers.

But Danely said his team of analysts “doubt this makes Intel CPUs more competitive” in the PC space.

This, he explained, is because integrating another company’s graphics — in this case, Nvidia’s GPU “chiplets” — wouldn’t make a CPU more competitive. That’s because the chip itself is the main performance driver for a personal computer.

As for Intel’s deal to supply CPUs for Nvidia’s AI server systems for data centers, Danely sees the market opportunity s “small,” at roughly $1 billion to $2 billion.

On Thursday, Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang told journalists that he sees that very same market opportunity being $30 billion.

Danely also said:”We downgrade Intel from Neutral to Sell given our belief the stock is pricing in success in its leading-edge foundry business, which we believe has minimal chance to succeed.”

The partnership announcement critically failed to mention Intel’s contract manufacturing (foundry) business, which has been driving losses at the company as it conducts mass layoffs and pauses factory plans.

Intel shares fell fractionally in premarket trading Friday.

Housing stocks were always likely to benefit from the Fed’s return to easing, and they have perked up in recent weeks as the universally expected interest-rate cut got priced in.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

What does it mean that only a fraction of the country’s population — its wealthiest consumers — are propping up spending growth, while the vast majority of people are barely shelling out enough to keep pace with inflation?

Yahoo Finance’s Hamza Shaban gets to grips with that disparity in today’s Morning Brief:

Read more here.

US stocks are trading at record levels with earnings season right around the corner — and rising expectations for Corporate America’s profit growth are a sign that the rally can keep going, despite tariff risks.

Bloomberg reports:

Read more here.

Shares of FedEx (FDX) rose over 5% in premarket after the delivery giant’s quarterly profit and sales topped Wall Street estimates.

Analysts had predicted a hit to profit after the Trump administration put an end to “de minimis” exemptions for shipments worth under $800, so they were no longer delivered duty-free.

Reuters reports:

Read more here.

Here’s a look at some of the top stocks trending in premarket trading:

Intel (INTC) stock fell 2% in premarket trading on Friday following the news that Nvidia (NVDA) will take a $5 billion stake in the company. Intel rallied on Thursday after Nvidia made the announcement and closing 22% up.

Synopsys, Inc. (SNPS) stock fell 1% before the bell on Friday after rising 12% on Thursday following the Intel, Nvidia news.

Lennar (LEN) stock fell 2% in premarket trading on Friday after reporting a 46% drop in third-quarter profit and forecasting fourth-quarter home deliveries below Wall Street estimates. High inflation and affordability pressures have hindered US homebuilders.

Gold (GC=F) fell for a third consecutive day as the impact of the Fed’s rate-cut was felt in markets for the haven asset.

Read more here.