Stock market closes another winning week by barely moving
Wall Street closed out another winning week with a quiet Friday, as stocks found some stability after sliding the day before.
The Standard & Poor’s 500 index edged up 1.47 points, or less than 0.1%, to 4,536.34 to cap its eighth winning week in the last 10. The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.51 points, or less than 0.1%, to 35,227.69, its 10th gain in a row. The Nasdaq composite slipped 30.50 points, or 0.2%, to 14,032.81 a day after recording its worst loss in more than four months.
Roper Technologies rallied 3.7%, one of the larger gains in the S&P 500, after it reported better profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The company, which looks to dominate niche tech markets, also raised its financial forecasts for the full year.
The earnings reporting season is gaining momentum, and a majority of companies are reporting better-than-expected results. They’re doing so by a bit less than usual, though, according to FactSet.
Mixed signals — including layoffs, strong job growth and lingering inflation — have clouded the U.S. economic outlook.
On the losing side of Wall Street was American Express, which fell 3.9%. It reported stronger-than-expected profit for the spring, but its revenue fell short of forecasts.
Comerica swung from an initial gain to a loss of 4.1% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the spring than analysts expected. The regional bank also reported a decline in average customer deposits, though it said the levels stabilized in the second half of the quarter. Deposits have been under intense scrutiny since several banks failed in March after customers suddenly yanked out their cash.
The stock market has generally been on a tear this year as the economy has defied predictions for a recession. So far, it has powered through much higher interest rates meant to bring down inflation, and the hope is that it may outlast the Federal Reserve’s rate-hike campaign.
The Fed is widely expected to raise its federal funds rate Wednesday to its highest level since 2001. But the hope is that will be the final increase of the cycle because inflation has been cooling since last summer. The federal funds rate started last year at virtually zero.
To be sure, the 18.1% jump for the S&P 500 this year also has critics saying the rally has come too far, too fast. The risk of recession remains because inflation and interest rates remain high.
Consumer prices in the United States cooled last month, rising just 0.1% from April to May and extending the past year’s steady easing of inflation.
When Fed Chair Jerome H. Powell speaks Wednesday after the central bank’s decision on rates, economists at Deutsche Bank say, he “is likely to emphasize that further evidence is needed to have confidence inflation will be tamed.”
Besides the Fed meeting, next week will also feature earnings reports from three of the “Magnificent Seven” companies behind the majority of the S&P 500’s gains this year. Alphabet, Meta Platforms and Microsoft will report their earnings, and expectations are high after their shares all soared more than 35% so far this year.
Another one of the seven, Tesla, saw its stock slump sharply Thursday despite reporting stronger-than-expected profit and revenue on fears about upcoming growth. Its shares slipped an additional 1.1% on Friday.
The top stocks have become so big and their movements have become so influential over the market that Nasdaq is rebalancing its Nasdaq 100 index before trading begins Monday to lessen the effect some stocks have on the overall index.
The seven stocks, which also include Amazon, Apple and Nvidia, are collectively trading with stock prices that are 44 times higher than their earnings per share over the last 12 months, said Savita Subramanian, equity strategist at Bank of America.
That’s an expensive level, but the other stocks in the S&P 500 are trading at a more reasonable-looking 17 times earnings. The stock market’s gains have broadened out a bit recently, and Subramanian said in a BofA Global Research report that she expects that to continue.
In the bond market, Treasury yields were mixed.
The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 3.83% from 3.86% late Thursday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans.
The two-year Treasury yield, which moves more on expectations for the Fed, ticked up to 4.85% from 4.84%.
In markets abroad, stocks were mixed across Europe and Asia.
Taiwan’s Taiex fell 0.8% after TSMC, the world’s biggest manufacturer of computer chips, said it expects its sales to fall 10% this year as demand wanes. It also said it would not meet a 2024 target for starting production at a factory under construction in Arizona.
AP writer Elaine Kurtenbach contributed to this report.
