The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose nearly 868 points on Friday, or 1.79%, capping a weekly advance that left the blue-chip index up 3.2% over the last five days. The S&P 500 also closed at a record, while the Nasdaq Composite surged 6.84% for the week and logged its best weekly gain since last May.
The move capped a stretch of fresh record highs for U.S. stocks, in the words of Jared Blikre, as investors kept buying into large-cap technology and other market groups that had been rising for 13 straight days. The S&P 500 ended the trading week 4.5% higher, its best week since last May, and the Dow posted its best week since last June.
The rally was broad, but it was led by the biggest names and the semiconductors tied to them. The Nasdaq Composite, the Nasdaq 100, the Philly Chip Index and XLK all finished with 13 straight days of gains. The Magnificent Seven rose 8.6% for the week, software jumped 14%, Oracle climbed about 27%, Nvidia added 7% and Broadcom rose 9%. SanDisk and Western Digital each gained 8%.
Small-cap stocks also joined the move, rising 2% on Friday and 5.5% for the week. That breadth matters because it showed the advance was not confined to one corner of the market, even if the strongest gains still came from technology and related stocks.
There was one clear laggard in the mix: energy and utilities underperformed, with crude oil down about 10%. That split left the week looking less like a single-theme trade and more like a market where investors kept pressing into growth while stepping away from the parts tied most closely to weaker oil prices. For now, the Dow Jones Industrial Average and its peers are ending the week with momentum that has been rare enough to stand out on any calendar.
