Bitcoin and US stock market tick higher as S&P 500 heads for big weekly gain

Bitcoin pushed past $104,000 on Friday, climbing alongside a US stock market that’s closing out its strongest week in months, according to data from CNBC.

The S&P 500 rose by  0.4% to extend its five-day winning streak, finishing the week up 5%, while the Nasdaq Composite added 0.2%, capping a 6% gain since Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 243 points, or 0.5%, bringing its weekly advance to 3%.

This rally came even as new data showed that Americans are feeling worse about the economy. The University of Michigan’s consumer sentiment index just dropped to its second-lowest reading ever, and people now expect prices to rise 7.3% over the next 12 months — up sharply from 6.5% last month.

That hasn’t stopped Wall Street from buying. Traders seemed more focused on the news earlier this week that the US and China agreed to pause their tariff fight for 90 days, a move that cooled some of the worst trade fears that had been building for weeks.

Nvidia leads tech bounce as Coinbase recovers

Tech names led the way all week, with Nvidia jumping over 15% since Monday. Meta Platforms climbed 7%, Apple added 6%, and Microsoft posted a 3% gain. The S&P’s five-day run would’ve been impossible without those numbers. But not everything came from tech. The crypto world made noise too.

Coinbase soared more than 9% on Friday, bouncing back from a 7.2% plunge the day before. That drop followed news that the US Securities and Exchange Commission is investigating the company over whether it misstated user numbers.

Analysts on Wall Street dismissed the selloff, calling it “overdone” and a potential entry point for investors. The rebound helped drag crypto stocks higher despite regulatory clouds.

Meanwhile, Galaxy Digital debuted on the Nasdaq under the ticker GLXY, opening at $23.50 and last trading near $23.98. It was a quiet but notable moment, as more crypto-linked companies continue to test US markets.

The optimism in stocks didn’t come without some skepticism. Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group, said traders might be getting ahead of themselves.

“Markets are repricing the stagflation risk right now—what was once the base case for folks who were sure that tariffs were going to shoot inflation skyward immediately, really hasn’t been supported in the data,” Jamie said. “The US consumer may say he/she is worried, but they aren’t spending like they are. Consumption trumps all once you filter out all the noise.”

President Donald Trump added more fuel to the trade debate Friday when he told reporters that his team will be sending letters to multiple countries over the next two to three weeks, laying out new tariff rates. He said those letters would replace formal negotiations in cases where there isn’t enough time to hold direct talks.

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