Friday Market Wrap: Stocks, Indexes Continue To Rise

The S&P 500 closed at a new record high on Friday as the U.S. equity market continued its recent rally. The Nasdaq posted the biggest gains on the session followed by the S&P and the Dow.

Stock movers included Boston Beer Co IncSAM, which added more than 15 percent, and Advanced Micro Devices, Inc.AMD, which climbed around 12 percent. Shares of Skechers USA IncSKX fell more than 22 percent on the day.

Major Averages

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 54 points, or 0.29 percent, to finish at 18,571.

The S&P 500 made a new high after gaining around 10 points, or 0.46 percent, to finish at 2,175.

The Nasdaq rose better than 26 points, or 0.52 percent, and closed the session at 5,100.

Commodities

The commodity complex showed some weakness on Wednesday, with the Bloomberg Commodity index losing 0.37 percent.

NYMEX crude oil futures fell more than 1 percent and were last trading at $44.23. Brent contracts also lost a little better than 1 percent to $45.71.

Precious metals traded lower on Wednesday. COMEX gold futures shed 0.59 percent to $1,323.10. The heavily traded SPDR Gold Trust ETF GLD fell 0.77 percent to $126.35. Silver futures registered a decline of 0.68 percent to $19.68.

In the grains complex, both corn and wheat climbed on the day. Corn futures added 0.29 percent to $3.4175 and wheat climbed 1.80 percent to $4.2525. Soft commodities trading on the ICE exchange such as cocoa and cotton fell 0.55 percent and 0.40 percent, respectively.

Bonds

Treasury prices were modestly higher, sending yields on government bonds lower. At the market close, the iShares Barclays 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT had gained 0.17 percent to $138.80.

Treasury yields were as follows: The yield on the 2-Year Note was 0.71 percent. The 5-Year Note was yielding 1.13 percent. The 10-Year Note was last yielding 1.57 percent while the 30-Year Bond yield was 2.29 percent.

Currencies

The U.S. Dollar was stong on the session. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF UUP, which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, was up 0.52 percent to $25.21.
The closely watched EUR/USD pair fell 0.48 percent to 1.0973 euros.

Volatility and Volume

The CBOE Volatility Index (VIX) continued to fall on Friday as the equity market climbed. The closely watched "fear index" shed another 5.65 percent to 12.02. The 52-week low in the VIX is fast approaching at 10.88.

Volume was light on Friday with around 51 million shares of the SPDR S&P 500 ETF SPY trading hands versus a three-month daily average of just under 100 million shares. Trading in the PowerShares QQQ Trust QQQ was also lighter than usual with around 18 million shares trading hands compared to a three-month average of 25.6 million.

Posted In: NewsSector ETFsBondsBroad U.S. Equity ETFsFuturesCommoditiesCurrency ETFsForexAfter-Hours CenterMarketsETFs
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