US stocks cap best week of 2024 with another gain
The S&P 500 was up 0.2% on Friday. The tech-focused Nasdaq 100 inched up 0.1%, and the Russell 2000 gained 0.3%.
The S&P 500 is now on a seven-day winning streak, up 3.9% on the week largely thanks to Thursday’s rally following strong consumer spending data and falling weekly jobless claims. Nasdaq 100 gained 5.2%. This was the market’s best week since November and it helped more than erase the market’s losses since the soft July jobs report.
The benchmark 10-year Treasury yield ticked down 4.3 basis points to 3.88%, while the policy-sensitive two-year Treasury yield decreased 4.7 basis points to 4.05%. Previously, yields jumped on Thursday after retail sales coming in higher than expected.
Financials was the best-performing S&P 500 ETF on Friday, with a 0.7% gain. But over the past week, tech added 7.7%, the most among all ETFs. Nvidia fueled the rally with an 18.9% advance, its best week in over a year.
Gold prices closed at a record high, up more than 2% to crack $2,500.
Ulta Beauty was the second-best performing S&P 500 constituent on Friday, adding 3.1%, continuing to build on Thursday’s surge after Berkshire Hathaway revealed a small stake in the company.
