Finance

The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite led Friday's market gains with a 1.2% jump, outperforming other major benchmarks and logging its third consecutive positive week. This momentum was heavily driven by investor enthusiasm for artificial intelligence, which propelled Nvidia to a new all-time intraday high, pushing its market capitalization past $5.7 trillion.

Micron Technology posted exceptional non-GAAP earnings of $33.42 per share for its fourth quarter of fiscal 2026, blowing past consensus estimates. Driven by persistent supply constraints in DRAM and NAND paired with robust data center demand for AI storage, the firm's revenues surged nearly 380% year-over-year to exceed $54 billion. The stellar results heavily supported trading volume and valuations across the semiconductor industry.

Digital assets experienced strong upward momentum to kick off the final quarter of the year, a seasonal period historically favorable for the asset class. Bitcoin advanced toward the $86,500 threshold, boosted by both the soft macroeconomic employment data and a positive long-term technical moving average crossover known as a 'golden cross'. Concurrently, Ethereum reclaimed the $2,700 level amid updated institutional price targets pointing to further upside.