Fri Aug 01 13:40:00 UTC 2025: Okay, here’s a news article summarizing the provided text:

**Headline: Microsoft and Meta Prop Up S&P 500 Amidst Broad Market Struggles**

**New York, NY** – The S&P 500 experienced a day of mixed performance Friday, ultimately edging slightly lower, with the gains from tech giants Microsoft and Meta Platforms masking broader weakness across the market. While more than two-thirds of the index’s components declined, surges in Microsoft (up 4%) and Meta (up 12%) kept the benchmark afloat. The S&P 500 was down 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite rose 0.1% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped 161 points, or 0.4%.

The strong performance from Microsoft and Meta, driven by positive earnings reports, briefly propelled both the S&P 500 and Nasdaq towards record highs. However, those gains were tempered by profit-taking and renewed economic concerns.

Adding to the market unease was the latest inflation reading. The core personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, rose at a 2.8% annual rate. This elevated reading has diminished expectations of a potential interest rate cut by the Federal Reserve in September.

The breadth of market weakness was underscored by the Invesco S&P 500 Equal Weight ETF, which weights each stock in the S&P 500 equally, falling 0.5%. This indicates that the gains were concentrated in a few large companies, with the majority of stocks experiencing declines.

Investors are now looking to earnings reports from Apple and Amazon.com, due out after the closing bell, to see if they can sustain the tech sector’s momentum.

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