Stock market has its best week since early March
U.S. stock indexes ended mostly higher Friday as the market closed out its biggest weekly gain since March.
Drugmakers and other healthcare companies climbed after investors sized up President Trump’s latest plans to rein in drug prices and concluded that any policy changes didn’t pose immediate threats to healthcare company profits.
“All of this will have to go through a year-plus regulatory process, and none of it will have immediate impact,” Terry Haines, macro research analyst at Evercore ISI, wrote in a research note Friday. “Thus our market positive view today.”
The health sector’s gains outweighed losses by technology stocks, phone companies and banks. Symantec plunged, losing one-third of its value.
All told, the Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 4.65 points, or 0.2%, to 2,727.72. For the week, the benchmark index rose 2.4%, its best weekly gain since early March.
The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 91.64 points, or 0.4%, to 24,831.17. The Nasdaq composite edged down 2.09 points, or 0.03%, to 7,402.88. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks rose 3.08 points, or 0.2%, to 1,606.79.
For the week, the Dow notched a gain of 2.3%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.7%, and the Russell 2000 went up 2.6%.
Trading was choppy for much of Friday as investors waited for the Trump administration to release details of its plan to control drug prices. After Trump began discussing the broad goals of his plan Friday, healthcare stocks mostly moved higher.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals jumped 6.2% to $306.94. CVS Health climbed 3.2% to $64.41. Biogen advanced 3.1% to $282.39.
“Trump had a choice today: To seek disruptive fundamental reform or to embrace more incremental steps,” Haines wrote. “Trump chose the incremental over the disruptive, which is the decisive factor for markets today.”
Technology stocks — which are up 10.8% this year, outgaining all other sectors in the S&P 500 — were among the biggest decliners Friday.
Symantec slumped 33.1% to $19.52 after the security software company revealed an internal investigation that could delay its annual report and said the matter has been referred to the Securities and Exchange Commission. Symantec also gave weak profit forecasts.
Nvidia reported solid quarterly results, but the chipmaker’s stock shed some of its recent gains, sliding 2.2% to $254.53.
Investors continued to key in on the latest corporate earnings and outlooks.
Trade Desk vaulted 43.4% to $75.61 after the digital advertising platform company raised its annual forecasts after a strong first quarter.
Yelp fell 7.8% to $44.02 after the online review portal gave an outlook for its current quarter that fell short of analysts’ expectations.
TiVo slipped 1.2% to $13.88 after the digital video recording company took a bigger-than-expected loss and reported weak revenue.
Despite the rash of disappointing company report cards, corporate earnings have been a source of good news for investors in recent weeks.
Roughly 90% of the companies in the S&P 500 have reported results so far this earnings season, and some 62% of those have delivered both earnings and revenue that exceeded financial analysts’ expectations, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.
Walmart, Home Depot and other retailers are due to report quarterly results next week.
“The market is looking forward to the next ingredient that’s going to push it up or down as you get through earnings,” said Jeff Zipper, managing director at U.S. Bank Private Wealth Management.
Benchmark U.S. crude oil fell 66 cents to settle at $70.70 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, fell 35 cents to $77.12. Oil futures have remained near their highest level since 2014 this week after the Trump administration’s decision to re-impose sanctions on Iran, the world’s fifth-biggest oil producer.
Heating oil was little changed at $2.22 a gallon. Wholesale gasoline also held steady at $2.19 a gallon. Natural gas slipped a penny to $2.80 per 1,000 cubic feet.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 2.97% from 2.96%.
The dollar fell to 109.30 yen from 109.37 yen. The euro rose to $1.1945 from $1.1927.
Gold fell $1.60 to $1,320.70 an ounce. Silver fell 1 cent to $16.75 an ounce. Copper was little changed at $3.11 a pound.
European stock indexes finished mostly lower Friday after a strong rally saw many indexes strike multi-week highs. Germany’s DAX fell 0.2%, and France’s CAC 40 slipped 0.1%. Britain’s FTSE 100 gained 0.3%. Earlier in Asia, Japan’s benchmark Nikkei 225 rose 1.2% and South Korea’s Kospi advanced 0.6%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng jumped 1%.
UPDATES:
2:55 p.m.: This article was updated with closing prices, context and analyst comment.
This article was originally published at 7:30 p.m.
