Wall Street celebrated another record close on Friday as the benchmark S&P 500 index ended above 5,000 for the first time ever.
The record-setting session came as investors applauded a revision of December inflation data that showed it was even lower than first reported. Waves of well-received quarterly earnings also buoyed stocks, with big names in tech powering a huge chunk of market gains.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.5% to close at 5,027. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) slipped roughly 0.1% or 60 points, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) led the way higher, gaining 1.3%.
Amazon (AMZN), Meta (META), Microsoft (MSFT), and Nvidia (NVDA) have produced a roughly 20% return to start the year, per analysis from Yahoo Finance’s Jared Blikre. The returns from these four names alone account for around 70% of the S&P 500’s gain this year.
Earnings did most of the talking this week as investors were left with few broad economic updates. But they have been driving shifts in market direction thanks to their importance to the Federal Reserve’s thinking on policy. Fed officials have stressed they’re taking the time to check price pressures really are cooling before making any interest rate cuts.
PepsiCo (PEP) results took center stage on Friday as the pace of corporate earnings starts to slacken. Shares slipped more than 3% after the soda and snacks giant’s sales missed Wall Street estimates amid price hikes.
