Stock Market Update

[BRIEFING.COM] The S&P 500 (+0.22%) is in second place on Friday afternoon, up now about 17 points.

Briefly, S&P 500 constituents Coherent (COHR 346.55, -30.40, -8.06%), Autodesk (ADSK 230.31, -10.64, -4.42%), and Clorox (CLX 92.48, -3.72, -3.87%) dot the bottom of the average, keeping gains at bay. For its part ADSK slides because investors are focusing more on the $3.6 bln MaintainX acquisition and related financing/restructuring disruption risks than the solid earnings beat and modest guidance raise, while CLX falls after news that CEO Linda Rendle would step down for health reasons.

Meanwhile, HP Inc. (HPQ 27.23, +2.22, +8.88%) piggy-backs off the index-leading gains from Dell (DELL 412.40, +95.35, +30.07%) after blowout AI server demand and upbeat PC commentary signal stronger enterprise hardware spending and AI-driven upgrade cycles, which investors see as a positive read-through for rivals like HP Inc. in PCs and commercial infrastructure.