Yahoo Finance S&P, NASDAQ Close at Record Highs
Investors can head into the weekend feeling pretty good about this market as two of the three major indices closed in record territory on Friday.
It was a busy week for news but a quiet week for stocks. We saw trade negotiations with China and Mexico that haven’t amounted to much yet, while the media went crazy as a couple of President Trump’s former associates were sent to jail. And yet, the market took everything in stride, brushing aside the noise and managing to make history along the way.
The S&P had been lingering less than 1% from all-time highs recently and made an intraday record earlier this week before slipping into the close. But today it finally stuck. The index climbed 0.62% to 2874.69, eclipsing the late January peak of 2872.87. It was also up 0.9% for the week.
The NASDAQ actually had a better day and week than either of its counterparts. It rose 0.86% on Friday to a new high of 7945.98, which took out the previous record of 7932.2. The weekly advance was a nice 1.7%. Meanwhile, the Russell 2000 reached another milestone with an increase of 0.50% to 1725.67.
The Dow is still about 3% away from making its own headlines, so it’ll have to settle for an advance of 0.52% today (or about 133 points) to 25790.4, putting it up 0.5% for the week.
We can thank Fed Chair Jerome Powell for this energetic ending to an otherwise sleepy summer week. He said all the right things in his speech today at this year’s Economic Policy Symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming. In general, Mr. Powell said that the economy has strengthened substantially with no signs of overheating. Also, the plan remains for gradual rate hikes moving forward; most likely in September and December to bring the total amount of hikes to 4 this year. The market likes a predictable plan and so it saw this speech as dovish enough to end the week on a high note.
Today's Portfolio Highlights:
Blockchain Innovators: So where does Silicon Valley do its banking? One such place is SVB Financial Group (SIVB), which calls itself “the bank of the world’s most innovative companies and their investors.” That’s all fine and good, but what really caught Dave’s attention was this company’s aggressive investing in FinTech and blockchain companies. Therefore, he added SIVB to the portfolio on Friday. Read the complete commentary for more.
Counterstrike: Investors avoided MicroStrategy (MSTR) for the better part of a year, but they’ve recently been getting back into this provider of business intelligence software. A positive earnings surprise of 75% has a way of sparking interest. Jeremy thinks the chart is starting to look good again, so he added MSTR on Friday with a 9% allocation. However, he suggests using limit orders for this low volume pick. Read the full write-up for more.
Options Trader: "Stocks finished strong on Friday and for the week. That makes two up weeks in a row for the S&P and the Russell 2000. And they both broke out to new all-time highs, along with the Nasdaq.
"Was great to hear Fed Chairman Jerome Powell praise the economy in a speech at the Jackson Hole Economic Symposium, where he said, “Over the course of a long recovery, the U.S. economy has strengthened substantially... With solid household and business confidence, healthy levels of job creation, rising incomes, and fiscal stimulus arriving, there is good reason to expect that this strong performance will continue.”
"What a testimonial!
"I was expecting a strong week this week and we got it! Expecting another strong performance next week!" -- Kevin Matras
Have a Great Weekend,
Jim Giaquinto
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