Last Friday, U.S. stocks opened high and continued to rise, with all three major indexes closing with gains.

Major Indices Movement

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.64%, recording a weekly gain of 0.75% and marking a four-week winning streak.

S&P 500 Index increased by 1.11%, ending the week with a loss of 0.85%.

Nasdaq Composite Index climbed 1.03%, finishing the week down 2.08%. Both the Nasdaq and S&P 500 have fallen for two consecutive weeks.

Most large tech stocks rose, with Meta gaining over 2%, and Microsoft and Amazon rising more than 1%. Apple, Nvidia, and Intel saw slight increases, while Tesla, Google, and Netflix experienced small declines. 3M surged about 23%, marking its largest single-day gain since at least 1980.

Trump Promises to Make Bitcoin a US Strategic Reserve Asset, Predicts Bitcoin's Market Cap Will Surpass Gold

At the Bitcoin 2024 Conference in Nashville, Tennessee, US Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump delivered a keynote speech. Trump announced that if he returns to the White House, he will ensure the government retains 100% of its Bitcoin holdings and will designate Bitcoin as a US strategic reserve asset. He also predicted that Bitcoin's market cap will surpass gold in the future. Since its inception, Bitcoin's market cap has grown significantly and is now the ninth-largest asset globally, soon to surpass silver and eventually surpass gold.

US Inflation Moderately Rises in June, Fed May Start Cutting Rates in September

US prices rose moderately in June, highlighting an improving inflation environment that may lead the Federal Reserve to begin cutting interest rates in September. The US Department of Commerce's Bureau of Economic Analysis reported on Friday that the PCE price index rose by 0.1% in June after being flat in May. Overall, price pressures are easing, which may bolster the confidence of Federal Reserve officials meeting next week that inflation is moving towards the 2% target.

Popular Chinese Stocks Mostly Rose

XPeng and NIO increased by over 3%, Bilibili by more than 2%, and Alibaba and Baidu by over 1%. JD.com, Pinduoduo, Vipshop, iQiyi, Weibo, and Full Truck Alliance saw slight gains. NetEase fell by 3%, and Tencent Music dropped over 2%.

Ark Investment: Increased Holdings in Tesla, Reduced Coinbase in Q2

Ark Investment, led by "Cathie Wood," submitted a filing to the SEC on July 26 showing that it reduced holdings in Coinbase $Coinbase Global, Inc. COIN$ while increasing holdings in Tesla $Tesla Motors, Inc. TSLA$ during Q2. The firm’s significant holdings include Tesla, Coinbase, Roku, Block, and Roblox.

CrowdStrike: Over 97% of Systems Affected by IT Outage Back Online

CrowdStrike $CrowdStrike Holdings CRWD$ reported that as of Thursday, over 97% of systems affected by the recent IT outage were back online. The global IT failure impacted businesses, government agencies, and air travel worldwide. CEO George Kurtz stated that more work is needed to address the impacts of the outage, which affected around 8.5 million devices, many of which are part of broader enterprise IT systems.

Apple's AI Features to Launch Later Than iOS 18 Release

Apple’s $Apple Inc. AAPL$ upcoming AI features will be released later than initially planned, missing the initial release of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18. The company aims to fix bugs and plans to introduce Apple Intelligence as part of a software update by October. This means the AI features will be available a few weeks after the scheduled September release of iOS 18 and iPadOS 18.

China's First Esports Stock Debuts, Ho Yau-Kun Becomes Youngest NASDAQ Founder in Asia

Victory Five Group listed on the NASDAQ Stock Exchange under the ticker "NIPG," marking the debut of China’s first esports stock. NASDAQ Vice Chairman and Asia-Pacific Chairman Bob McCooey highlighted that Ho Yau-Kun set a record as the youngest founder of a NASDAQ-listed company in Asia. The company's stock closed up 0.22%, having surged more than 30% intraday.

3M's 23% Surge Last Friday: Best Single-Day Performance in Over 40 Years

3M $3M Company MMM$ closed up 22.99%, marking its largest single-day gain since at least 1980. The company's latest earnings report showed better-than-expected Q2 net sales. CEO Bill Brown, who took office on May 1, announced prioritizing sales growth and new product development.