Stocks declined on Friday as the postelection rally waned, leading all three major averages to post weekly losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average sunk over 300 points, while the S&P 500 Index and Nasdaq Composite lost about 1.3% and 2.2%, respectively.

Here's how the market settled to close out the week:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): -1.32% or -78.55 points to 5,870.62

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): -0.70% or -305.87 points to 43,444.99

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -2.24% or -427.53 points to 18,680.12

Moving Markets:

U.S. Retail Sales rose slightly ahead of estimates in October, the Census Bureau reported Friday, but some metrics signaled weakness beneath the headline.

Overall sales rose 0.4% last month, below September's upwardly revised 0.8% gain but slightly above Dow Jones estimates for an increase of 0.3%. Excluding autos, however, sales rose by a less-than-expected 0.1%.

On the Earnings Front:

Alibaba (BABA  ) reported better-than-expected profit in its fiscal second-quarter on Friday, but its sales fell short on waning consumer spending of its main e-commerce businesses. "The year-over-year increases [in profit] were primarily attributable to the mark-to-market changes from our equity investments, decrease in impairment of our investments and increase in income from operations," the company said in its earnings statement.

Notably, Alibaba's Cloud Intelligence Group reported 7% annual sales growth, accelerating from the first-quarter's 6% year-over-year gain, with the growth attributable to the company's effort to position itself as a leader in the artificial intelligence market.

"Growth in our Cloud business accelerated from prior quarters, with revenues from public cloud products growing in double digits and AI-related product revenue delivering triple-digit growth," CEO Eddie Wu said in a statement. "We are more confident in our core businesses than ever and will continue to invest in supporting long-term growth."

Applied Materials (AMAT  ) shares rose Friday after the chipmaker reported strong fiscal fourth-quarter earnings on Friday, driven by increasing demand for AI chips. However, the company offered light forward guidance, expecting current-quarter revenue of about $7.15 billion, plus or minus $200 million on adjusted earnings per share of $2.29, plus or minus $0.18.

"Our portfolio of products and services uniquely positions us to enable our customers in their pursuit of AI and energy-efficient computing. As these key drivers of semiconductor innovation continue to grow in importance, the industry's roadmap is becoming increasingly dependent on materials engineering, where Applied is the clear leader," CEO Gary Dickerson said in a statement.

In the News:

Shares of vaccine makers including Moderna (MRNA  ), Pfizer (PFE  ), BioNTech (BTNX  ), Novavax (NVAX  ) and GSK (GSK  ) all dipped lower on Friday as President-elect Donald Trump nominated known vaccine skeptic Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Analysts are concerned that anti-vaccine rhetoric from the top health position could deter more Americans from receiving routine immunizations.

Super Micro Computer (SMCI  ) was in focus on Friday as the server company faces a potential delisting from the Nasdaq as soon as Monday if it fails to file plans to become compliant with the index's regulations. The company is currently late in filing its 2024 year-end report with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) and has yet to replace its accounting firm.

Palantir Technologies (PLTR  ) announced Friday it will transfer its Class A Common Stock to the Nasdaq Global Select Market from the New York Stock Exchange, effective Nov. 26, 2024.

Wells Fargo analyst Mike Mayo wrote to clients in a Thursday note that Trump's election victory and a Republican-controlled Congress could benefit Morgan Stanley (MS  ), with the firm upgrading the bank to Equal Weight from Underweight and increasing its price target to imply more than 7% upside.

"We [estimate] more excess capital than before, [especially] given likely better internal capital generations [with estimated] EPS growth inflecting from negative to positive," Mayo wrote, adding that more mergers and initial public offering activity could bring the inflection in capital markets. "Indeed, we see a scenario when activity is front-loaded given a 2-year window given the potential for the Senate to flip back."

Goldman Sachs analyst Catherine O'Brien resumed coverage of the airline industry on Friday, issuing Buy ratings for Alaska Air (ALK  ), Delta Air Lines (DAL  ) and United Airlines (UAL  ).

"We expect supply constraints to continue (and in some cases worsen) into 2025 and that a return to pre-pandemic seasonality has been firmly established, with the latter encouraging more capacity discipline in off-peak periods," O'Brien wrote in a note to clients. "We expect stock performance to continue to be mixed, with airlines exposed to premium/corporate demand and improving competitive capacity in addition to idiosyncratic margin tailwinds to outperform. These drivers underpin our Buy ratings on ALK, DAL, and UAL."

In the same note, O'Brien issued Sell ratings of JetBlue Airways (JBLU  ) and Southwest Airlines (LUV  ).