US equity markets advanced on Friday (16 May) to cap a strong week and despite news Moody Ratings had downgraded the US’s highest investment grade position - Dow rose +332-points or +0.78% to 42,654.74, moving into positive territory for 2025. UnitedHealth Group Inc rebounded +6.40%, clawing back some of the heavy losses posted in the prior session amid reports that the insurer's Medicare Advantage business was the subject of a criminal probe. News of the investigation came on the heels of the insurance giant withdrawing its full-year guidance and announcing the departure of its CEO. Nvidia Corp added +0.42% ahead of CEO Jensen Huang taking the stage on Sunday (18 May) at Computex, an annual technology trade show, with this year’s theme - “AI Next” - focused squarely on the emerging technology that has lately powered growth in the company's business. Microsoft Corp after offering a series of new concessions to the European Commission (EC) in a bid to settle a long-running antitrust investigation into the bundling of its Teams communications app with Office 365. Its proposal reportedly included unbundling Teams from its Office and Microsoft 365 software suites, offering those products at a lower price without Teams, and enhancing interoperability for rival services.
