By Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta
(Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes rose on Friday, with the and the Dow on track to log their biggest weekly gains since November, as investors anticipate a wave of policy changes under the incoming Trump administration.
At 9:49 a.m. ET, the rose 355.82 points, or 0.82%, to 43,508.16, the S&P 500 gained 52.44 points, or 0.89%, to 5,990.17 and the gained 254.87 points, or 1.30%, to 19,588.75.
Nine of the 11 S&P 500 sectors rose with technology leading gains with a 1.4% increase, bouncing back from the previous session’s declines.
Nvidia (NASDAQ:) gained 2.1% and Broadcom (NASDAQ:) rose 2.2% after Barclays (LON:) raised its price targets on the stocks, sending the chips index up 1.9%.
Intel (NASDAQ:) jumped 8.2% on speculations of a takeover.
Better-than-expected earnings from major banks and signs that inflation is cooling have prompted risk-taking on Wall Street this week, putting the benchmark S&P 500 and the blue-chip Dow on track for their steepest weekly rises since the U.S. election week.
The S&P 500 banking index and regional banks have outperformed the main indexes this week, logging advances of about 6.1% and 7.6%, respectively.
President-elect Donald Trump is expected to take over the White House on Monday and investors will be on edge for any insights into his plans on tax cuts, tariffs, regulations and immigration at his inauguration speech, that analysts widely expect could boost the economy.
“Even if there’s tariffs, the underlying tone is that Trump’s policies are going to be pro-growth and Trump’s a businessman so he understands money. So that’s why investors are bullish going into the weekend,” said Adam Sarhan, chief executive of 50 Park Investment.
However, there are also concerns that his plans on tariffs and immigration could spark a trade war and fresh price pressures, which could force the Federal Reserve to stave off further monetary policy easing.
Cleveland Fed President Beth Hammack said inflation remains a problem, as recent data has pointed to a resilient economy.
According to data compiled by LSEG, traders are expecting the central bank to leave interest rates on hold at its meeting later this month and see the first cut coming in July. They had all but priced out any rate cuts for 2025 earlier in the week.
On the data front, single-family homebuilding increased solidly in December. The housing index rose 1%.
SLB gained 5.7% after the oilfield services provider beat estimates for fourth-quarter profit.
Truist Financial (NYSE:) rose 5.5% after reporting a rise in fourth-quarter profit as it earned more in interest payments.
J.B. Hunt lost 6.5% after the trucking firm missed Street estimates for fourth-quarter profit.
Social media firms such as Meta (NASDAQ:) gained 1.1% and Snap added 0.2% in choppy trading after the Supreme Court ruled against TikTok’s challenge to law that would force its app’s sale or ban in the United States.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.52-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 2.54-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P 500 posted 14 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 47 new highs and 24 new lows.
