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The Dow Jones Industrial Average soared to a new high on the back of gains in Home Depot and Caterpillar as investors started to embrace some stocks outside of the technology bull market leaders this week.
The 30-stock index plowed ahead 247.61 points to 40,001.36. It was its first time above 40,000 since topping that round number milestone in late May. Home Depot added 2.2% to bring its gain for the week to nearly 8%. Caterpillar added 1.6%. The Dow is up 1.8% on the week
The S&P 500 index picked up 30.85 points to 5,615.39, for an improvement on the week of 0.87%.
The NASDAQ grabbed 115.04 points to 18,398.44, to finish up on the week by 0.25%.
The market rallied even after meager reactions to banks’ second-quarter earnings. JPMorgan shares were 1.5% lower even as the bank posted second-quarter revenue higher than Wall Street expectations on a jump in investment banking fees. Citi stock dipped 1% despite beating on the top and bottom lines in the second quarter.
Wells Fargo shares tumbled 6% after the bank said net interest income, a key measure of lending profitability for banks, fell short of expectations in the second quarter.
Nvidia bounced 2% on Friday as investors couldn’t resist some of their favorite tech names that had sold off the day before.
A reading of wholesale inflation came in slightly hotter than expected on Friday, but Wall Street largely ignored those figures after a drop in the consumer price index a day earlier that spurred optimism the Federal Reserve would cut rates in September.
Investors’ move out of tech stocks on Thursday was spurred by a consumer price index report that showed a 0.1% monthly decline in June. Traders flocked to areas of the market that will benefit from Federal Reserve interest rate cuts, including small-cap stocks.
Prices for the 10-year Treasury gained some ground, lowering yields to 4.18% from Thursday’s 4.21%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dipped 43 cents at $82.19 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices sank $4.20 to $2,417.70
