Shares end higher, end best week since February – Daily News

By ALEX VEIGA

Technology companies led a rally on Wall Street that sent the S&P 500 soaring to an all-time high, delivering the index its best weekly gain since February.

The S&P 500 rose 1%, enough to make up for the losses from the day before. The benchmark index closed higher four of the last five days and ended the week up 3.8%.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% and the Nasdaq composite gained 0.7%, both recovering from early declines. Shares of smaller companies lagged the broader market, leaving the Russell 2000 index 0.4% lower.

A late wave of purchases bolstered gains for the market, which fluctuated between small gains and losses in morning trading after the government reported another major rise in inflation last month.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics said prices for US consumers rose 6.8% in November from a year earlier. With rising costs for food, energy, housing and other items, Americans have endured their highest annual inflation rate since 1982. Core prices, excluding food and energy, were up 4.9% year over year.

Still, markets were relieved to see that the report was in line with expectations.

“Many have felt the effects of inflation in their day-to-day lives, so this probably isn’t a huge shock to the market,” said Mike Loewengart, chief executive of investment strategy at E-Trade.

The S&P 500 rose 44.57 points to 4,712.02, a new all-time high. It set its previous record on November 18.

The Dow gained 216.30 points to 35,970.99. The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 113.23 points to 15,630.60. The Russell 2000 dropped 8.40 points to 2,211.81. The indices all posted weekly gains.

The most recent inflation data comes ahead of the Federal Reserve’s two-day meeting of policymakers next week. Rising inflation has prompted the central bank to accelerate the pace of phasing out its bond purchases, which has helped keep interest rates low.

Federal Reserve chairman Jay Powell has suggested that the central bank could step in more quickly to reduce or phase out the number of bonds it buys each month to keep long-term interest rates low.

Analysts say the high inflation numbers are adding pressure on the Fed to heed Powell’s comments. Many investors also expect the Fed to raise interest rates from current ultra-low levels by mid-next year.

“Inflationary pressures this morning will reinforce the Fed’s determination to accelerate the winding down. With the strength of the economic recovery, it is time to take the crutches off,” said Anu Gaggar, global investment strategist for Commonwealth Financial Network.

Barring a drop on Thursday, stocks have rebounded this week after two weeks of volatile trading that left the S&P 500 in consecutive weekly losses. The index has now recovered most of its losses after the discovery of the ommicron variant of COVID-19 was announced last month. It is now up 25.5% for the year.

Investor concerns about ommicron eased this week on encouraging signs that the variant may be less dangerous than delta. Pfizer said this week its lab tests suggest the drugmaker’s COVID-19 boosters provide protection against the new strain.

More than 70% of shares in the S&P 500 rose, with tech companies doing most of the heavy lifting. Oracle, the enterprise software maker, rose 15.6% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after reporting strong quarterly results. Microsoft and Apple rose 2.8% each.

Household goods makers and sellers also helped raise the S&P 500. Costco climbed 6.6%, while Coca-Cola rose 2.6%.

Energy futures closed higher. The price of US crude oil rose 1%. That gave a modest boost to energy sector stocks in the S&P 500. Devon Energy was up 2.6%.

The 10-year Treasury yield fell to 1.48% from 1.51% just before the inflation report came out. The yield on the two-year bond fell to 0.66%.