Wall Street stocks closed higher on Friday, with market-leading growth shares kick-starting indices’ climb as investors looked past disappointing US economic data.
Despite their advances, all three major US stock indices ended the session below Friday last week’s close, ending a five-week streak of weekly gains.
Investors favored growth over value, with mega-cap tech stocks, led by Apple Inc and Microsoft Corp, doing the heavy lifting.
The University of Michigan’s preliminary consumer sentiment data for this month unexpectedly dropped to a 10-year low, and a US Department of Labor report showed job openings barely budged from record highs even as workers are quitting in record numbers.
“Markets drifted higher today despite a very weak consumer sentiment report, as inflation seems to be hurting consumers more than corporate profits,” said David Carter, chief investment officer at Lenox Wealth Advisors in New York.
The souring mood of the consumer could be worrisome to retailers as the holiday shopping season draws near and is likely to draw intensified scrutiny to upcoming retail earnings reports.
Walmart Inc, Target Corp, Home Depot Inc and Macy’s Inc are among the high-profile retailers expected to report next week.
“Investors will be focused on guidance from retailers to determine if inflation will crimp profit margins or if costs can be passed through,” Carter said.
Retail results would herald the last days of what was a largely upbeat third-quarter earnings season. As of Friday, 459 of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported. Of those, 80 percent delivered consensus-beating earnings, according to Refinitiv.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 179.08 points, or 0.5 percent, to 36,100.31. The S&P 500 gained 33.58 points, or 0.72 percent, at 4,682.85 and the NASDAQ Composite added 156.68 points, or 1 percent, at 15,860.96.
For the week, the Dow fell 0.6 percent, the S&P retreated 0.3 percent and the NASDAQ Composite lost 0.7 percent.
Ten of the 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 ended higher, with communications services’ 1.7 percent advance leading gainers. Energy’s 0.3 percent dip represented the largest percentage loss.
Shares of Johnson & Johnson gained 1.2 percent after the healthcare giant announced splitting into two companies, dividing its consumer healthcare segments from its pharmaceuticals/medical devices business.
Tesla Inc dropped 2.8 percent on news that chief executive Elon Musk has sold an additional US$700 million in stock in the next chapter of a saga that began with Musk’s infamous Twitter poll on whether he should offload shares in the company he founded.
Rival electric automaker Rivian Automotive Inc advanced 5.7 percent, notching its third consecutive gain in as many days as a publicly traded company.
US-listed shares of Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (阿里巴巴) slipped 0.6 percent following the e-commerce giant’s report showing its slowest-ever Singles Day sales.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the New York Stock Exchange by a 1.29-to-1 ratio; on NASDAQ, a 1.19-to-1 ratio favored advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 34 new 52-week highs and one new low; the NASDAQ Composite recorded 130 new highs and 96 new lows.
Volume on US exchanges was 10.32 billion shares, compared with the 10.94 billion average over the past 20 trading days.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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