Stock Market Today: Stocks End Wobbly Week With a Mixed Finish
Tech stocks lagged on Friday, but cyclicals helped buoy the Dow Jones Industrial Average after a better-than-expected CPI reading.


Friday perfectly reflected the past week-plus of trading, with a roller-coaster session that ended up with mixed results for the broader indices and disappointing finishes for several large tech stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average, which gained 0.5% to 27,665, saw relative outperformance from cyclical plays such as Nike (NKE, +2.8%), Dow (DOW, +2.4%) and Caterpillar (CAT, +2.7%), but weakness in Apple (AAPL, -1.3%), Microsoft (MSFT, -0.7%) and Salesforce.com (CRM, -1.9%).
The decent performance for the Dow came after a better-than-expected August print of the consumer price index, which rose 0.4% month-over-month.

Sign up for Kiplinger’s Free E-Newsletters
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and more - straight to your e-mail.
Profit and prosper with the best of expert advice - straight to your e-mail.
"The continued firming of prices in the August report, similarly to last month, was partly driven by components impacted by Covid unwinding some of their previous large declines and bouncing back from depressed levels." says Rick Rieder, BlackRock's chief investment officer of global fixed income. "Overall, we think 2020’s broadly deflationary influences may well lead to somewhat higher rates of inflation by mid-2021, yet, importantly, we do not expect this to reach excessive levels."
Other action in the stock market today:
- The S&P 500 closed with a marginal gain to 3,340.
- The Nasdaq Composite finished 0.6% lower to 10,853.
- The small-cap Russell 2000 declined 0.7% to 1,497.
Up next week is a light earnings calendar, but one with a few important economic bellwethers including FedEx (FDX) and homebuilder Lennar (LEN).
How the "Younger Crowd" Invests
In addition to our own analysis of stocks, ETFs and mutual funds, we often highlight the comings and goings of other noteworthy investors.
Researching the recent purchases of billionaires and other institutional investors, as well as their sells, can be educational, given the research resources available to these high rollers. The same goes for the Berkshire Hathaway equity portfolio, which gives us insights not just into one of Wall Street's most legendary investors (Warren Buffett, of course), but also the lieutenants who are being groomed to likely replace him.
Another group of investors worth watching, too: Millennials.
While older generations have much more invested, this generation is already helping to shape Wall Street in several ways, such as the growth of environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) investing.
The growing importance of ESG standards is coming through loud and clear from corporate communications. FactSet's John Butters notes that in a search for the term "ESG" in conference call transcripts from S&P 500 companies between June 15 through Sept. 5 showed 60 citing the term.
"Although this number is only 12% of the companies in the index," Butters writes, "it reflects a 100% increase compared to the number of companies citing “ESG” in the previous quarter (30) and is the second highest overall number of companies going back at least four years."
Custodian Apex Clearing recently reviewed more than a million Millennial accounts to determine the most popular stocks among this generation's investors. We've looked not just at some of the very top holdings, but also some of the biggest changes made to their portfolios over the wild past few months.
Profit and prosper with the best of Kiplinger's advice on investing, taxes, retirement, personal finance and much more. Delivered daily. Enter your email in the box and click Sign Me Up.
Kyle Woodley is the Editor-in-Chief of WealthUp, a site dedicated to improving the personal finances and financial literacy of people of all ages. He also writes the weekly The Weekend Tea newsletter, which covers both news and analysis about spending, saving, investing, the economy and more.
Kyle was previously the Senior Investing Editor for Kiplinger.com, and the Managing Editor for InvestorPlace.com before that. His work has appeared in several outlets, including Yahoo! Finance, MSN Money, Barchart, The Globe & Mail and the Nasdaq. He also has appeared as a guest on Fox Business Network and Money Radio, among other shows and podcasts, and he has been quoted in several outlets, including MarketWatch, Vice and Univision. He is a proud graduate of The Ohio State University, where he earned a BA in journalism.
You can check out his thoughts on the markets (and more) at @KyleWoodley.
-
Aging: The Overlooked Risk Factor
Sponsored Elder care is a personal and financial vulnerability many people fail to plan for.
-
AI vs the Stock Market: How Did Alphabet, Nike and Industrial Stocks Perform in June?
AI is a new tool to help investors analyze data, but can it beat the stock market? Here's how a chatbot's stock picks fared in June.
-
AI vs the Stock Market: How Did Alphabet, Nike and Industrial Stocks Perform in June?
AI is a new tool to help investors analyze data, but can it beat the stock market? Here's how a chatbot's stock picks fared in June.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Swing as Trump Scraps Canada Trade Talks
Despite a mid-afternoon slip, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ended the day at new record highs.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Struggle to Sustain Gains
Mixed messages from multiple sources continue to make for a messy market for investors, traders and speculators.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Stable as Inflation, Tariff Fears Ebb
Constructive trade war talks and improving consumer expectations are a healthy combination for financial markets.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Chop as Judges Block Then Reinstate Tariffs
The Trump administration has asked for and received a stay in a case that seems headed for the Supreme Court.
-
Stock Market Today: "Good Trump" Gives Dow 740-Point Boost
Friday's headwind was Tuesday's tailwind, as President Trump's social media posts continue to drag and drive financial markets.
-
A Case Study in Mismatched Fund Returns
Stock Market Why do a fund's returns sometimes differ from its underlying index? A longstanding legal principle holds the key.
-
Stock Market Today: Stocks Drop as Trump Takes Aim at EU, Apple
The commander in chief issued new tariff threats against the European Union and the iPhone maker.