Wall Street indexes hit fresh peaks on trade, Fed cut optimism
NEW YORK: Wall Street's main indexes rose on Friday, pushing the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq to intraday record highs as investors pinned their hopes on deeper interest-rate cuts and the US striking deals with its biggest trading partners.
The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq Composite both rose more than 0.5%, surpassing their previous peaks touched in February and December, respectively. The Nasdaq looked on course to confirm a bull market, having recovered more than 20% from a trough in April.
'I think the driver for that momentum clearly is the dissipation of concerns over the magnitude of tariffs. That was the biggest concern in the early April time frame and I think that headwind seems to be dissipating a bit,' said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B Riley Wealth.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said the Trump administration's trade deals with other countries could be done by Labor Day, citing the country's 18 main trading partners.
Investors are focusing on the interest-rate trajectory after the Wall Street Journal reported that Trump toyed with the idea of announcing US Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell's replacement by September or October.
Traders now price in a 20.7% chance of a rate cut in July, compared with 14.5% last week, according to CME Group's FedWatch tool.
At 11:28 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 403.09 points, or 0.93%, to 43,789.88, the S&P 500 gained 36.14 points, or 0.58%, to 6,177.16, and the Nasdaq Composite added 108.05 points, or 0.54%, to 20,275.96.
Ten of the 11 major S&P 500 sub-sectors rose. Energy stocks were the only laggards, falling 0.5%.
Shares of Nvidia, the world's most valuable company, rose 1.8% to touch a record high, while other tech-heavyweights including Amazon.com and Apple added 1.1% and 0.2%, respectively.
The benchmark S&P 500 and the tech-heavy Nasdaq were on track for their best weekly performance in more than a month, while the blue-chip Dow was set for a weekly advance, if gains hold. UBS Global Wealth Management raised its year-end target for the S&P 500 to 6,200 from its prior forecast of 6,000, banking on softening trade uncertainty.
Nike's shares jumped 15.8% after it forecast a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter revenue.
Retailer Lululemon Athletica rose 1.6% after Nike's results, while Hoka-owner Deckers Outdoor added 2.7%.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.01-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.26-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and two new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 70 new highs and 34 new lows.
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