US stock markets finishes the week flat after gains on Thursday and Friday

The week in US stock markets began with heavy selling post-FOMC but saw a recovery on Thursday and Friday, driven by strong earnings from Micron and a lower CPI. The CPI dip, however, may be skewed by data collection issues due to the government shutdown. For the week, the S&P 500 finished virtually flat. On the day, major indices showed gains: S&P 500 +0.8%, Nasdaq +1.1%, Russell 2000 +0.8%, DJIA +0.3%, Toronto TSX +1.2%. Today's trading featured the largest options expiration in history, with an estimated $7.1 trillion traded. Following an initial buying burst, prices traded in a tight range. Strong performers included Carnival Cruise Lines, Moderna, Micron, Oracle, and AMD, each up more than 5%. In contrast, Nike suffered a notable decline of 10.9%, indicating ongoing struggles in the housing sector. The 'Mag7' stocks showed mixed results, possibly due to the heavy options expirations, with NVIDIA rising 3.4% but other heavyweight names like Microsoft and Tesla experiencing slight declines.