NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising closer to their record levels Friday as they finish out their fourth winning week in the last five.
The S&P 500 was 0.3% higher in early trading and just 1% below its all-time high set in July. It's roared to claw back almost all its losses from last week, which was its worst in nearly 18 months.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 161 points, or 0.4%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
Technology stocks have been the market’s main drivers this week, particularly Nvidia and other big technology stocks that struggled earlier this summer on concerns their prices had shot too high in the frenzy around artificial intelligence.
Technology giant Oracle helped drive Friday’s gains after giving long-term financial forecasts that analysts said topped their expectations. The software company climbed 6.1% to cap a strong week that began with a better-than-expected profit report for the latest quarter. Oracle is on pace for a nearly 21% gain this week, which would be its best in more than two decades.
Stocks were also getting support from the bond market, where Treasury yields were easing ahead of next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve. The consensus expectation is that the Fed will deliver the first cut to interest rates in more than four years.
Inflation has slowed from its peak two summers ago, which is encouraging the Federal Reserve to turn more focus to the slowing job market and economy. It looks set to lower the federal funds rate, which has been sitting at a two-decade high for more than a year.
Lower rates can help relieve pressure on the economy by making it easier to borrow money, but they can also give inflation more fuel. Reports earlier this week on inflation showed some underlying upward pressure may remain, which initially pushed many traders to ratchet back their expectations for the Fed’s move next week.
On Friday, though, traders were seeing nearly a coin flip’s chance that the Fed could deliver a large cut of half of a percentage point, instead of the more traditional quarter of a point, according to data from CME Group. The federal funds rate is currently sitting in range of 5.25% to 5.50%.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.65% from 3.68% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell to 3.57% from 3.65%.
On Wall Street, home-furnishings company RH jumped 20.9% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. The company said demand has been gaining momentum each month “despite operating in the most challenging housing market in three decades.”
They helped offset a 1.4% drop for Boeing, as aircraft assembly workers walked off the job early Friday. Union members voted overwhelmingly to go on strike and reject the troubled aerospace giant’s tentative contract that would have increased wages by 25% over four years.
Adobe fell 9.3%, even though the company also reported better profit for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts said investors were more focused on its financial forecasts for the current quarter, where some trends looked to be falling short of expectations.
In stock markets abroad, indexes were higher in Europe after finishing mixed in Asia.
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AP Writers Matt Ott and Zimo Zhong contributed.
