NEW YORK, June 26 ― The S&P 500 ended the week at record high yesterday, lifted by Nike and several banks, while weaker-than-expected inflation data eased worries about a sudden tapering in stimulus by the Federal Reserve.
Nike Inc surged 15.5 per cent to an all-time high after the sneaker maker forecast fiscal full-year sales ahead of Wall Street estimates, helping the Dow lead among the three main indexes.
Bank of America climbed 1.9 per cent and Wells Fargo rallied 2.7 per cent after the Fed announced big banks have cleared stress test and will no longer face pandemic-related restrictions on buying back stock and paying dividends.
The S&P 500 financials index rose 1.3 per cent and was the top performers among 11 sector indexes.
“Today is a bit of profit-taking in tech and a reallocation into the banks after the results of the stress tests,” said Dennis Dick, a proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC, adding he expects banks to soon announce increased dividends.
A bipartisan Senate deal on infrastructure spending embraced by US President Joe Biden on Thursday continued to lift stocks, with the materials and industrials indexes increasing and helping the S&P 500 outperform the Nasdaq.
“The positive news from the infrastructure package favors the S&P 500 more than then Nasdaq. The Nasdaq does not pour cement into roads and put steel in bridges. That's the S&P 500,” said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
The latest personal consumption expenditures (PCE) data showed a measure of underlying inflation rose less than expected in May. Core PCE rose 3.4% year-over-year as expected, above the Fed's 2 per cent flexible target.
Billionaire Richard Branson's spaceship company Virgin Galactic soared almost 40 per cent and was Wall Street's second most traded company after receiving approval from the US aviation safety regulator to fly people to space.
With the FTSE Russell reconstituting its indexes following a wild trading year marked by the pandemic and a “meme” stocks, volume on US exchanges surged to 15.1 billion shares, versus the 11.2 billion average over the last 20 trading days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.69 per cent to end at 34,433.84 points, while the S&P 500 gained 0.33 per cent to 4,280.69.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 0.06 per cent, to 14,360.39.
For the week, the S&P 500 gained 2.7 per cent, the Dow added 3.4 per cent and the Nasdaq gained 2.4 per cent. It was the S&P 500's strongest week since early February and the Nasdaq's strongest since April.
FedEx Corp dropped 3.6 per cent after the US delivery firm missed 2022 earnings forecast due to hiring difficulties.
CarMax Inc jumped 6.7 per cent after the used-car retailer topped Wall Street estimates for quarterly revenue, helped by strong demand as more people opted for personal vehicles over public transport due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.29-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.22-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.
The S&P 500 posted 32 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 149 new highs and 14 new lows. ― Reuters
