By Teresa Rivas
Holiday Highs. It was a relatively quiet Friday ahead of the unofficial start to summer. Investors are still riding the wave of strong earnings, with tech taking a starring role once again.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 294 points, or 0.6%, to a record, while the S&P 500 added 0.4% -- putting it up for eight straight weeks. The Nasdaq Composite ended the day 0.2% higher.
There wasn't much in the way of earnings reports on Friday, but investors were still buoyed by the swell from earlier this week. Nvidia shares may have fallen after yet another earnings beat, but IBM stock was having its best showing in a quarter-century -- pushing the Dow to its fresh high -- and chip stocks were rallying.
IBM is getting a boost from brewing excitement over quantum computing. Earlier this week, IBM and other quantum computing plays got new funding from the U.S. Commerce Department to build out quantum efforts in the U.S.
Meanwhile, with some 95% of first-quarter results in the rearview mirror, semiconductor firms have led the way in year-over-year earnings growth in a quarter that saw earnings rise at their fastest pace in four years.
Investors don't expect the party to stop either. Consensus bottom-up earnings estimates for the S&P 500 jumped more than 10% in the past three months, at one of the fastest rates in the past two decades, UBS' Mark Haefele highlights. Four semiconductor companies plus the energy sector account for more than 50% of that rise.
Wall Street continues to overlook consumers' woes, with sentiment falling to another fresh low on Friday. The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for May was revised down to 44.8, the lowest reading on record, its third straight month of declines as Americans fret about the cost of living.
"Consumers appear worried that inflation will increase and expand beyond fuel prices, even over the long-term," notes Brian Therien, senior analyst at Edward Jones. "Importantly, consumer spending has remained solid despite generally weak sentiment, a trend that we expect to continue."
That latter point helps to explain why investors have turned a blind eye to weak sentiment, particularly since the wealthiest Americans are spending enough to offset any pullback from lower earners.
There's also a dash of hope that there could be a breakthrough on the Strait of Hormuz.
The bond market may still be worried, but few others are.
Watch our TV show on Fox Business Saturday or Sunday at 10:30 a.m. ET. This week, fund executive Jan van Eck on whether the chip-stock rally has legs. Plus, what we learned this week about SpaceX.
The Hot Stock: Dell Technologies +16.8% The Biggest Loser: Coinbase Global -4.4%
Best Sector: Healthcare +1.2% Worst Sector: Communication Services-0.7%
This Week's Magazine
The Calendar
Next week's holiday shortened trading brings an inflation update with the Bureau of Economic Analysis' release of the personal consumption expenditures price index on Thursday. That same day, the Census Bureau releases the durable goods report as well as new residential sales data. Markets are closed on Monday for Memorial Day.
There are a few notable companies reporting quarterly results next week. HP Inc., Marvell Technology, and Salesforce release earnings on Wednesday, followed by Costco Wholesale and Dell Technologies on Thursday.
-- Dan Lam
What We're Reading Today
-- Oil Prices Rise. What to Know About NATO Meeting and Strait of Hormuz.
-- The Chokepoints That Could Choke Us
-- Oversight Committee Chair Launches Probe of Insider Trading on Polymarket,
Kalshi
-- Billboard Stocks Are Surging. Why Lamar and Outfront Can Keep Rallying.
-- And this week's cover story: SpaceX IPO Is a Game You Should Play at Your
Own Risk
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