US Stocks Face Weekly Loss as Intel Sinks 13%: Markets Wrap

(Bloomberg) — US markets drifted lower on Friday after a turbulent run that put the S&P 500 on pace for its first back-to-back weekly loss since June. Gold briefly rose above $4,950 an ounce.

S&P 500 contracts fell 0.2%, with the benchmark down 0.4% for the week. Intel Corp. slumped 13% in premarket trading after the chipmaker warned it was struggling with manufacturing problems. The dollar headed for its worst week in seven months. Meanwhile, emerging-market stocks and currencies extended a strong start to 2026.

Investors are quietly voting with their feet to sidestep bouts of volatility driven by US policies, highlighted this week by President Donald Trump’s push to assert greater control over Greenland. While the outlook for US stocks remains strong, traders are also looking elsewhere for pockets of calm and opportunity.

“I hope that the geopolitical situation starts to ease so that the market can focus on substance versus noise,” said Andrea Gabellone, head of global equities at KBC Global Services. “Full-year 2026 guidances are, in my view, the most crucial piece of data the market has been waiting for quite some time, given valuations and growth expectations.”

The yield on 10-year US Treasuries hovered near the highest since September. While gold erased its daily gain, the precious metal remained on course for its best week since the start of the pandemic.

In Europe, the focus fell on the Amsterdam debut of armored vehicle and munitions maker CSG NV. The stock opened 28% higher after the largest-ever initial public offering globally for a pure-play defense firm, highlighting growing appetite for the sector.

Fund flows into regions such as Europe and Japan have far outpaced those into US-listed equities this year, with US stocks attracting just about $770 million of the $50 billion directed toward developed markets in 2026, according to Bank of America Corp., citing EPFR Global data.

Meanwhile, the $134 billion iShares Core MSCI Emerging Markets ETF is on track for its biggest monthly inflow since its inception in 2012.

The diversification trend has extended to haven assets such as Treasuries, as concerns over the Federal Reserve’s independence and geopolitics give traders pause for thought. Sovereign debt gauges for selected developed nations have outperformed Treasuries so far this year, with the exception of Japan.

“Typically, safe bonds and Treasuries have been a source of diversification during times of uncertainty, but particularly Treasuries haven’t provided any cushion over the past days,” said Philipp Lisibach, head of strategy and research at LGT Private Banking. “That’s also why gold continues to rally.”

In Asia, the Bank of Japan maintained its benchmark rate and issued higher inflation forecasts. While Governor Kazuo Ueda suggested that inflation will weaken below 2% soon, he also left open the possibility of an early rate hike.

“The challenge is balancing rate hikes to support the yen without slowing growth,” wrote Min Joo Kang, senior economist at ING Bank. “Timing is uncertain, but we now see a June hike as the base case.”

Corporate Highlights:

Chinese officials have told the country’s largest tech firms including Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. they can prepare orders for Nvidia Corp.’s H200 AI chips, suggesting Beijing is close to formally approving imports of components essential to running artificial intelligence. Intel Corp. shares slumped in premarket trading after Chief Executive Officer Lip-Bu Tan gave a lackluster forecast and warned that the chipmaker was struggling with manufacturing problems. Armored vehicle and munitions maker CSG NV’s shares rose in its Amsterdam trading debut on Friday morning, after the firm and its owner raised €3.3 billion ($3.9 billion) in an initial public offering. Ericsson AB shares surged as much as 12% after the telecom equipment maker proposed its first-ever buyback and reported a fourth-quarter earnings beat. TikTok and its Chinese parent ByteDance Ltd. have closed a long-awaited deal to transfer parts of their US operations to American investors. Billionaire Li Ka-shing’s CK Hutchison Holdings Ltd. is renewing efforts to sell dozens of ports to a global consortium by splitting the deal into separate parcels with different ownership structures, people familiar with the matter said. Some of the main moves in markets:

Stocks

S&P 500 futures fell 0.2% as of 7:33 a.m. New York time Nasdaq 100 futures fell 0.2% Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 0.2% The Stoxx Europe 600 fell 0.2% The MSCI World Index was little changed Currencies

The Bloomberg Dollar Spot Index was little changed The euro fell 0.1% to $1.1740 The British pound rose 0.2% to $1.3525 The Japanese yen rose 0.1% to 158.21 per dollar Cryptocurrencies

Bitcoin fell 0.1% to $89,042.32 Ether fell 0.4% to $2,932.01 Bonds

The yield on 10-year Treasuries declined one basis point to 4.23% Germany’s 10-year yield was little changed at 2.89% Britain’s 10-year yield was little changed at 4.48% Commodities

West Texas Intermediate crude rose 1.8% to $60.43 a barrel Spot gold was little changed This story was produced with the assistance of Bloomberg Automation.

–With assistance from Neil Campling, James Hirai and Michael Msika.

©2026 Bloomberg L.P.