Wall Street advanced on Friday, with technology stocks driving the S&P 500 to its sixth record closing high since confirming a bull market on Aug. 18.
The NASDAQ also set an all-time closing high and the blue-chip Dow Jones is now in positive territory for the year to date.
The S&P 500 is close to wrapping up what appears to be its best August in 34 years.
All three major US stock indexes ended the week higher than last Friday’s close, marking the fifth consecutive week of gains for the S&P and the NASDAQ.
“Tech stocks have driven much of the recovery this year, but we are seeing breadth expand, which is helping indices like the Dow Jones Industrial Average,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York.
Stocks extended their gains after a top aide to US President Donald Trump said the president is willing to sign a US$1.3 trillion COVID-19 relief bill, four weeks after emergency unemployment benefits expired for millions of Americans.
Photo: reuters
Economic data released before the bell showed that US consumers, who account for about 70 percent of the country’s economy, increased their spending more than expected last month, but the savings rate, a barometer of consumer uncertainty, remained elevated well above pre-pandemic levels.
The personal consumption expenditures core index, which does not include food and energy, rose at a rate of 1.3 percent year-on-year.
US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday unveiled a new monetary strategy adopting an average annual inflation target of 2 percent, implying that the central bank could keep key interest rates near zero even if inflation rises above its target.
The Fed’s “new-found acceptance of higher inflation suggests the recovery could continue for much longer, as will near-zero rates,” Carter said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161.6 points, or 0.57 percent, to 28,653.87, the S&P 500 gained 23.46 points, or 0.67 percent, to 3,508.01 and the NASDAQ Composite added 70.30 points, or 0.6 percent, to 11,695.63.
For the week, the Dow rose 2.59 percent, the S&P 500 grew 3.26 percent and the NASDAQ increased 3.39 percent.
Energy stocks ended the session with the largest percentage gain among the major S&P sectors, rising 1.9 percent after Hurricane Laura passed through the US’ Gulf coast without causing widespread damage, and oil rigs and refineries began to restart operations.
However, tech firms continue to benefit from companies shifting to a work-from-home model.
Business software company Workday Inc jumped 12.6 percent after raising its annual subscription forecast and Dell Technologies Inc rose 6.1 percent after it beat quarterly profit expectations.
Walmart Inc announced it was joining Microsoft Corp in its bid for TikTok’s US assets from Chinese owner ByteDance Ltd (字節跳動).
Shares of Walmart and Microsoft advanced 2.7 percent and 1.0 percent respectively.
Nutanix Inc soared by 29.2 percent after the cloud service provider beat earnings expectations and Bain Capital invested about US$750 million in the company.
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