Wall Street ends mixed as gold hits record high amid market uncertainty

Wall Street capped a volatile week with a mixed performance on Friday, as a sharp drop in Intel shares weighed on blue-chip stocks while the Nasdaq managed a modest gain.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 285 points, or 0.6%, and the S&P 500 finished nearly flat, marking its second consecutive weekly decline. The tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 0.3%.

Intel shares plummeted 17% after the chipmaker issued a first-quarter revenue forecast for 2026 that fell short of Wall Street expectations. While the company reported strong results for the end of 2025, Chief Financial Officer David Zinsner blamed industry-wide supply shortages for the outlook.

Safe-haven demand continued to drive gold prices to record highs. The precious metal neared the $5,000-per-ounce milestone on Friday as investors sought protection against market uncertainty.

In currency markets, the U.S. dollar weakened against the Japanese yen and the Swiss franc. The decline followed President Donald Trump’s threats to impose tariffs on Europe, though those threats were later withdrawn.

In other corporate news, Capital One shares dropped 7.6% following a weak profit report, while CSX and Clorox both recorded gains.

Market attention now shifts to the Federal Reserve. Central bank officials are widely expected to keep interest rates unchanged during their meeting next week.

The deceptively quiet end to the trading week masks a deepening divergence on Wall Street. While macroeconomic data—anchored by resilient consumer sentiment and cooling inflation expectations—suggests a soft landing, these gains are being undermined by structural rot in the technology sector and a volatile political landscape.

Intel’s 17% collapse serves as a critical bellwether, exposing the lingering fragility of global supply chains that even the fervor surrounding Artificial Intelligence cannot fully obscure. This is not merely a localized corporate setback; it indicates a broader vulnerability that threatens to trigger a contagion across the high-tech indices.

Investor anxiety is further compounded by the return of "policy by decree." Recent fluctuations in trade rhetoric, characterized by threats of aggressive tariffs and erratic diplomatic posturing, have forced markets to bake a permanent political risk premium into U.S. assets. The occasional sell-offs in the dollar and Treasuries underscore a growing discomfort with this unpredictability, as the traditional "safe-haven" status of the greenback is tested.

In this climate, gold’s unprecedented surge toward the $5,000 mark represents far more than a standard technical hedge. We are witnessing a large-scale migration of capital away from traditional equities and sovereign debt. When global investors prioritize bullion over the dollar, it signals a fundamental vote of no confidence in the prevailing policy framework and a strategic retreat to defensive positions.

Stock market volatility and broader economic uncertainty carry significant implications for Vietnamese American households and small businesses. In community hubs like Little Saigon, a cooling economy often leads to a dip in discretionary spending, putting pressure on cornerstones of the community like the nail salon industry and phở restaurants. Beyond daily cash flow, those with retirement accounts or investment portfolios tied to the market are seeing heightened fluctuation. This economic shift doesn't just impact personal wealth; it can also affect the financial stability needed to sustain remittances or navigate the costs associated with visa categories like F2B, H-1B, TPS, and EB-5.