Finance

Major equity benchmarks achieved their strongest weekly performances since April, with the Nasdaq Composite climbing 5.19% and the S&P 500 jumping 3.58% over the period. A significant resurgence in semiconductor shares propelled the upswing, highlighted by a notable 12% weekly advance for Nvidia.

Amid the final stretch of the second-quarter earnings season, over 85% of reporting S&P 500 companies have surpassed Wall Street expectations, significantly higher than historical averages. This corporate outperformance has pushed aggregate profit margins to an unprecedented peak of 16.7%, heavily supported by massive earnings gains across the big tech industry.

The unexpectedly weak labor data prompted a notable decline in government bond yields, with the 10-year Treasury yield sliding to 4.64% and the 2-year note falling to roughly 4.20%. Concurrently, precious metals moved higher as gold prices surged past $4,330 an ounce and silver futures jumped over 5% to reach $64.69.