After getting knocked around Thursday, tech stocks decided Friday was a good day to dust themselves off and try again. The Nasdaq 100 climbed 0.6% by midday in New York, staging what traders like to call a "modest rebound" but what probably felt like sweet relief if you'd been watching your portfolio bleed the day before.

The broader market showed less enthusiasm. The S&P 500 inched up 0.3%, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average actually slipped 0.3%, dragged down by weakness in financials and pharmaceuticals. Not every sector got the comeback memo, apparently.

Nvidia Corp. (NVDA) clawed back 1.8% of its losses, which sounds better than it is when you remember the chip giant dropped 3.6% just a day earlier. Still, green is green.

Memory Chip Prices Send Micron Soaring

The real star of Friday's show was Micron Technology Inc. (MU), which absolutely rocketed higher by more than 7%. That made it the strongest performer across both the Nasdaq 100 and S&P 500, which is impressive considering how many stocks are competing for that title on any given day.

What sparked the rally? Reuters reported that Samsung Electronics jacked up prices for DDR5 memory chips by as much as 60% this month. The culprit, as with so many things these days, is AI-driven demand. Everyone needs more memory to run their artificial intelligence models, and Samsung apparently decided it was time to capitalize on that hunger.

SanDisk Corp. (SNDK), which has heavy exposure to the chip-memory market, caught the same wave and rallied more than 10%. When the supply-demand equation tilts this dramatically, the companies selling the scarce product tend to do just fine.

A Rare Earth Problem for Energy Infrastructure

GE Vernova Inc. (GEV) also emerged as a standout gainer Friday, rising after reports surfaced that Chinese export restrictions have created a global shortage of yttrium. If you're wondering what yttrium is, join the club. It's a rare earth element used in high-temperature coatings for gas turbines, which happen to be a critical component in GE Vernova's energy systems.

The supply squeeze isn't just a GE Vernova problem. Industries across aerospace, power generation, and semiconductors are starting to worry about potential cost spikes. When China restricts exports of materials that basically nobody else produces in meaningful quantities, supply chains get nervous in a hurry.

Bitcoin's Bad Week Gets Worse

Outside the equity markets, Bitcoin (BTC) continued its painful slide. The cryptocurrency dropped 3% Friday, hitting an intraday low of $94,500 before managing to claw back to $97,000. Persistent outflows from crypto exchange-traded funds kept pressure on sentiment, and the picture isn't pretty when you zoom out.

Bitcoin is now down 25% from its early October record high, which officially puts it in bear market territory. That decline has nearly wiped out all of the cryptocurrency's 2025 gains. For an asset class that spent the early part of the year celebrating its mainstream acceptance through ETFs, this selloff has been a sobering reminder that volatility works both ways.

Gold didn't fare much better, dropping 1.7% to $4,100. The precious metal got dragged lower by hawkish signals from the Federal Reserve, which recently pushed back hard against expectations for early rate cuts. Futures markets now show just a 50% probability of a rate cut in December, down from much higher odds not long ago. When interest rates stay higher for longer, assets that don't pay interest become relatively less attractive.

Friday's Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Looking at the exchange-traded fund landscape, the sector rotation was pretty clear. The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series (NASDAQ: QQQ) rose 0.7% to $613.00, while the Vanguard S&P 500 ETF (NYSE: VOO) climbed 0.4% to $620.95. The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA) slipped 0.2% to $473.79, reflecting the blue-chip index's struggles.

Small caps joined the party, with the iShares Russell 2000 ETF (NYSE: IWM) up 0.7% to $238.63. But the real divergence showed up in sector funds. The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLK) outperformed with a 1.4% gain, while the Financials Select Sector SPDR Fund (NYSE: XLF) lagged, down 0.4%. That's your Friday market in a nutshell: tech good, banks bad.

S&P 500's Top 5 Gainers On Friday

S&P 500's Top 5 Losers On Friday