S&P 500 Edges Up 0.42% as Nvidia and Meta Offset a Biotech Selloff
The S&P 500 closed Friday, 10 July 2026 at 7,575.39, up 0.42%, with ten of its eleven sectors higher even as health care fell and small caps slipped. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.29% to 26,281.61 and the Dow rose 0.29% to 52,637.01, while the Russell 2000 dropped 0.49% to 2,977.81. The CBOE Volatility Index eased to 15.03, its lowest close in weeks, capping a quiet finish to the week that followed SK Hynix's Nasdaq listing on Thursday.
What moved the index
Strength was spread across sectors rather than concentrated in technology. Materials rose 1.25%, consumer staples 1.11% and communication services 1.02%, the three sector leaders. Technology lagged the advance at 0.23% even though NVDA.US gained 4.03% to $210.96, because the largest chip name's move was offset by softer trade elsewhere in the group. Health care was the only sector lower, down 0.82%, and the biotech segment took the worst of it, with the group's benchmark ETF falling more than 3%. The 10-year Treasury yield rose three basis points to 4.569%, the US dollar index held near 100.97, and the small yield back-up did little to slow the large-cap gain.
Session highlights
META.US added 5.97% to $669.21, closing its strongest week in years after a run of AI announcements and a Bank of America note that pointed to lower-than-expected AI infrastructure costs. NVDA.US reclaimed the chip leadership it had ceded on Thursday, when it was the only large semiconductor name to finish lower, and rose 4.03%. The rest of the market split in two: staples and materials led the sector table while the Russell 2000 finished as the weakest major index. That divergence between large caps and small caps, more than the headline gain, defined the session.
Sector scorecard
Materials led at 1.25%, followed by consumer staples 1.11% and communication services 1.02%, the last carried by META.US and VOD.US. Utilities 0.62%, real estate 0.50%, energy 0.47% and industrials 0.45% all outpaced the index. Consumer discretionary 0.33%, financials 0.31% and technology 0.23% trailed but stayed positive. Semiconductors as a group rose 0.54%. Health care 0.82% lower was the only sector in the red, and the biotech ETF fell 3.20%, the widest single-industry loss of the day.
Top movers
Among gainers, VOD.US rose 12.54% to $14.72 after Xavier Niel's Vega agreed to buy e&'s 16.2% stake in Vodafone for about £4.4 billion, making Niel the company's largest shareholder. WDFC.US gained 10.65% to $264.91 after WD-40 reported fiscal third-quarter revenue up 24% to $195.1 million and beat profit estimates, sending the shares to their highest level in nearly two years. CBRS.US climbed 8.34% to $215.08 after Cerebras Systems detailed a European build-out targeting 200 megawatts of AI compute capacity by the end of 2027, with first sites in France, Norway and Finland. META.US 5.97% and NVDA.US 4.03% rounded out the leaders.
On the downside, MRNA.US fell 10.83% to $68.27 as Moderna gave back a June rally that had carried the stock above $85, its worst week in eleven months, with no fresh company news. OPEN.US dropped 10.09% to $4.76 as Opendoor unwound Thursday's 11% jump while its weekly $5 call options expired. IONS.US slid 9.37% to $58.25, a second day of losses after Ionis and partner AstraZeneca reported that their eplontersen heart-disease study missed its primary goal on Thursday. ARWR.US fell 9.05% to $76.40 and NTLA.US lost 7.93% to $14.21 as Arrowhead, Intellia and other gene-editing names sold off across the group.
After-hours earnings
No S&P 500 company reported after Friday's close, a typical quiet end to the earnings week. The second-quarter reporting season steps up next week: BlackRock (BLK.US) is scheduled to report on 15 July, and the large US banks follow, opening the busiest stretch of the calendar. Reactions to those results will set the tone for financials heading into the second half of July.
Next session catalysts (ET)
The next US cash session is Monday, 13 July. The economic calendar is light early in the week ahead of bank earnings mid-week, leaving index direction tied to whether the large-cap AI names that led on Friday can hold their gains and whether the biotech selling steadies. The e& stake sale keeps VOD.US in focus, and health care stays in view after Friday's 0.82% sector decline.
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