The three major Wall Street indices finished higher for the day and week on Friday, with the S&P 500 (.SPX) and the Dow (.DJI) breaking the latest records as investors viewed strong economic data and bank earnings as signs of momentum in The United States. pandemic recovery.
Nine of the 11 S&P subsectors rose on Friday. The energy (.SPNY) and information technology (.SPLRCT) indices were the exceptions. The former, which fell 0.9%, was weighed by lower oil prices, while the latter was marginally lower, the day after its highest ever close.
The S&P 500 and the Dow Industrials posted their fourth consecutive week of gains. The S&P 500 scored three final heights this week, while the Dow surpassed its best finish two days in a row.
The technology-heavy Nasdaq (.IXIC) finished less than one percent below its own all-time high on Feb. 12.
Investor confidence in the road ahead appears stable, with the Volatility Index (.VIX), Wall Street’s anxiety gauge, falling 1.9% to its 14-month low.
“Everyone is looking at how far we can run before we start hitting interest rates,” said George Catrambone, head of US trade at DWS Group.
“Until we see that significant inflation grow and the Fed starts talking about raising interest rates, I think it will be goldilocks conditions.”
Morgan Stanley (MS.N) reported a 150% jump in quarterly earnings on Friday and joined other major US banks by releasing first-quarter data that bolstered hopes for a speedy economic recovery.
Still, the investment bank’s shares fell 2.8% as it also revealed a loss of nearly $ 1 billion from the collapse of the private fund Archegos. read more
Shares of JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N), Goldman Sachs Group (GS.N), Bank of America Corp (BAC.N) and Wells Fargo & Co (WFC.N) rose between 0.7% and 3, 8%. The S&P financials index (.SPSY) climbed to a second consecutive record.
“When all of this is put in context and compared to other industries, including technology, we will see that the financial results look very powerful,” said Diane Jaffee, senior portfolio manager at TCW.
“Given what we know about the Fed’s easing of its dividend hike and buyback limits following the next June CCAR results, I think we’ll have a very strong six months – at least – for financials.”
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 164.68 points, or 0.48%, to 34,200.67; the S&P 500 (.SPX) scored 15.05 points, or 0.36%, at 4,185.47; and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 13.58 points, or 0.1%, at 14,052.34.
For the week, the S&P was up 1.4%, the Dow 1.2% and the Nasdaq 1.1%.
The Federal Reserve’s pledge to keep interest rates low despite higher inflation has also revived demand for wealthy technology stocks, although bond yields picked up slightly again on Friday after hitting multi-week lows a day earlier.
Of the tech-related behemoths that helped Wall Street’s recovery from the coronavirus-caused crash last year, Apple Inc (AAPL.O) fell 0.3% Friday, but Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O), Tesla Inc (TSLA. O) and Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) all won between 0.1% and 0.6%.
The volume on the US stock exchanges was 9.99 billion shares, compared to the average of 11.02 billion for the full session over the past 20 trading days.
On the NYSE there were more problems than the diminishing problems with a ratio of 1.36 to 1; on Nasdaq, a 1.20-to-1 ratio was in favor of declines.
The S&P 500 posted 140 new highs in 52 weeks and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite registered 154 new highs and 102 new lows.
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