New York, Feb 7, 2026, 13:36 EST — The market is closed.
Basic materials shares in the U.S. climbed on Friday. The S&P 500 materials sector index closed up 1.77% at 645.93, leaving the group 12.45% higher year-to-date.
U.S. markets are closed Saturday, leaving traders waiting for a burst of delayed Labor Department data that could shake up the dollar and commodity prices once trading picks up Monday. On the docket: the Employment Cost Index, tracking wage and benefit trends, lands Feb. 10; January’s jobs numbers hit Feb. 11; and then the January CPI, the closely watched inflation snapshot, follows Feb. 13.
Materials stocks pay close attention to growth signals and borrowing costs. Steelmakers and construction firms tend to benefit from upbeat jobs figures. On the flip side, hotter inflation usually pushes the dollar higher, putting pressure on metals.
The Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund finished at $51.51, gaining roughly 2% from the previous close, according to Investing.com. Copper wrapped up Friday near $5.88 per pound, climbing about 1% for the session.
Retail investors have been piling into metals, a Reuters Open Interest column noted on Friday. Chinese exchanges, in response, have hiked margins and tightened trading rules 38 times in just two months in an effort to tamp down the frenzy. The column also highlighted a spike in CME micro copper contract volume after copper prices soared to a record $6.58 per pound in late January.
Miners were out in front among U.S. materials stocks on Friday. Freeport-McMoRan climbed 2.45%, finishing the session at $60.67. Newmont jumped even higher—up 6.26% to $115.32, according to MarketWatch data.
Construction materials names moved higher. Vulcan Materials jumped 4.17% to $323.72, with Martin Marietta up 2.84% at $690.00, according to MarketWatch.
Chemicals were unsettled. Linde dropped over 2% after its adjusted EPS outlook for 2026 missed expectations, Investing.com reported.
Stocks caught a risk-on bid Friday, lifting the Dow past 50,000 for the first time and pushing the S&P 500 up 1.97%, according to a Reuters report. “I think there’s enough evidence that there’s real demand for AI products,” Baird investment strategy analyst Ross Mayfield told Reuters. Reuters
Overseas, the chatter among investors circled back to relief and the ongoing swings in metals. “The positive is that the rout we’ve seen in the metals sector it looks like it’s perhaps behind us,” IG Wealth Management chief investment strategist Philip Petursson said, following the TSX’s biggest jump since October in Canada. Reuters
The setup isn’t one-sided. If the dollar firms up following the jobs report or CPI, metals could slide, often hitting miners, chemical producers and steelmakers almost immediately.
DuPont’s next move comes early, with its quarterly earnings webcast kicking off Feb. 10 at 8 a.m. ET. Following that, attention shifts to the employment data due Feb. 11, then the CPI numbers set for Feb. 13.
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