S&P 500 Sets New High, Rises for Third Straight Week
11 June 2021 - 9:49PM
Dow Jones News
By Caitlin Ostroff
The S&P 500 edged higher Friday and notched a fresh high,
capping its third consecutive week of gains.
The broad stock-market gauge hugged the flatline for most of the
trading session before edging up 8.26 points, or 0.2%, to 4247.44.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 13.36 points, or less than
0.1%, to 34479.60. The Nasdaq Composite gained 49.09 points, or
0.4%, to 14069.42.
The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished with modest weekly gains,
while the Dow logged a slim loss.
Stocks have drifted higher while volatility has edged lower in
recent sessions as investors have been weighing the economic
reopening against risks of rising inflation. On Friday, fresh data
showed that consumer sentiment in the U.S. rose in early June while
inflation expectations eased.
"We're still positive on the outlook, but we're not as
optimistic as we were three months ago," said Daniel Morris, chief
market strategist at BNP Paribas Asset Management. "The market
needs to take a breather and let earnings catch up to where prices
are."
The Cboe Volatility Index fell to 15.65, closing below 16 for
the first time since February 2020, before the coronavirus pandemic
rattled markets.
Despite the broader market's muted moves, meme stocks have
continued to record sharp swings this week. AMC Entertainment rose
$6.59, or 15%, on Friday to $49.40. Clover Health added 69 cents,
or 4.8%, to $15.03, bringing its gains for the week to 67%.
GameStop added 5.9%.
In bond markets, the yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to
1.462%, recording its fourth consecutive week of declines. Yields
fall when bond prices rise. Yields have been dragged down this week
by tepid economic data and high demand from investors both in the
U.S. and elsewhere.
The concurrent rally in the stock and bond markets has also
stoked worries about a rapid reversal in both. The correlation
between an exchange-traded fund tracking Treasurys, the iShares 20+
Year Treasury Bond ETF, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 index is at a
15-year high, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co.
The Labor Department on Thursday said the U.S. economic rebound
is driving the biggest surge in inflation in nearly 13 years, with
consumer prices rising in May by 5% from a year ago. Investors have
been concerned for some weeks that a sharp and sustained rise in
inflation may prompt the Fed to weigh ending its easy money
policies in coming quarters.
"Inflation clearly is the big risk out there," said Edward Park,
chief investment officer at U.K. investment firm Brooks Macdonald.
"Some of the teeth have been softened over the last 24 hours, but
there is still the risk that the Fed comes out and says maybe this
is more sustained, and that changes the narrative, so central banks
are still very much a thing to watch."
Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 rose around 0.7%
to a fresh high.
Major stock indexes in Asia closed on a mixed note. The Shanghai
Composite Index declined 0.6%. South Korea's Kospi Index rose 0.8%,
while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index added 0.4%.
Gunjan Banerji contributed to this article.
Write to Caitlin Ostroff at caitlin.ostroff@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
June 11, 2021 16:47 ET (20:47 GMT)
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