NEW YORK (Reuters) – Wall Street rallied on Friday and pushed S&P and the Nasdaq to record closing highs for the fourth time this week, as statements by U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the Jackson Hole Symposium go calmed fears about the downsizing schedule and sent investors into the weekend wanting to buy.
All three indices recorded weekly gains.
“I see two things happening,” said Mike Zigmont, head of research and trading at Harvest Volatility Management in New York. “I see a reflective validation of the fall in buying and I see the market embracing a bad Fed.”
As for the recent chain of record highs in the indexes, including the S&P 500’s 52nd record high, closed so far this year, Zigmont said that “the march to the north has been very consistent. The declines are very reduced and recoveries are very fast “.
In his prepared comments, Powell failed to provide a clearer picture of when the central bank reduced asset purchases or raised interest rates, key elements of its impoverished monetary policy aimed at helping the economy to recover from the recession of the pandemic.
In fact, Powell seemed to have a darker tone than other Federal Open Markets Committee (FOMC) officials, including the Fed chairman of St. Louis. Louis, James Bullard, and Cleveland Fed Chair Loretta Mester said earlier in the day that they expect the volume reduction process to begin. soon and finish next year.
“The market is very happy that the Fed is pumping more liquidity into the economy every month,” Zigmont added. “The Fed is raising asset prices and the market is happy with that.”
The economic data released on Friday gave, in large part, exactly what economists expected: a decline in spending and consumer sentiment due to the COVID-19 Delta variant, and indicates that the current wave of rises in prices will not turn into long-term inflation. with Fed guarantees.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 242.68 points, or 0.69%, to 35,455.8, the S&P 500 gained 39.37 points, or 0.88%, to 4,509.37, and the Nasdaq Composite went add 183.69 points, or 1.23%, to 15,129.50.
Ten of the top 11 sectors of the S&P 500 advanced, with energy stocks making the highest profit percentage.
Shares of chip maker Nvidia rose 2.6% after sources said it would likely seek European Union antitrust approval to take over British chip designer Arm.
Workday Inc. jumped 9.1% as brokers raised their price targets after the company exceeded second-quarter revenue estimates.
Peloton Interactive Inc., an estimated stay-at-home, fell 8.5% after its profit warning and its announcement that U.S. regulators were investigating it for an accident involving the safety of its treadmills .
Beijing continued its crackdown on its technology companies, threatening to curb its ability to trade on U.S. stock exchanges.
Shares in the United States of Alibaba Group and Tencent Music Entertainment were down 3.5% and 1.4%, respectively, while the Invesco Golden Dragon ETF fell 1.1%.
Advanced issues outperformed the declines on the NYSE by a ratio of 5.21 to 1; on the Nasdaq, a 3.40-to-1 ratio favored the forwards.
The S&P 500 posted 60 new 52-week highs and a new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 132 new highs and 37 new lows.
The volume of US stock markets was 8.67 million shares, compared to the average of 8.95 billion in the last 20 trading days.
Reports by Stephen Culp; Additional reports from Devik Jain in Bengaluru; Edited by Marguerita Choy