Wall Street Poised To Wrap Up Strong First Half, Apple Hits $3 Trillion, Nasdaq Surges 38% YTD: Friday's Market Drivers

The last day of the first half of the trading year is marked by broad-based gains for the U.S. stock market, with all major averages in the green, and with Apple Inc. AAPL hitting all-time highs and crossing back above the $3 trillion-market-cap mark.

A measure of how much tech stocks dominated the stock market over the past six months can be seen in the fact that the S&P 500 Index is up 16% year to date while the Nasdaq 100 Index is up 38%.

The tech-heavy index is on track to post its second-best 6-month period ever, only behind the 61% surge seen in the second half of 1999.

On the macro front, Friday saw the Fed’s favorite inflation gauge slowing slightly more than expected in May, alleviating some fears over a rate hike in September, following an anticipated hike in July. The June consumer sentiment reading from the University of Michigan was revised up to 64.4, the highest reading in four months, adding further strength to the robustness of the U.S. economy and postponing recession fears.

Chart Of The day: Apple Hits All-Time Highs, Reaches $3 Trillion Market Cap

Cues From Friday's Trading:

The S&P 500 gained 1%, putting it on track for a 2.1% gain for the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6% on the day, up 1.8% for the week.

The Nasdaq 100 jumped 1.4%, pushing the weekly performance to 1.8%.

The Russell 2000 rose 0.6%, gaining 3.8% for the week, putting it on track for the best weekly performance since the end of March 2023.

U.S. Indices’ Performance on Friday

Friday’s Trading In Major US Equity ETFs: In midday trading on Friday, the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY was 1% higher to $442, the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA rose 0.6% to $343 and the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ was 1.5% higher to $369, according to Benzinga Pro data.

Almost all U.S. equity sectors were positive, except for the Real Estate Select Sector SPDR Fund XLRE.

The best performers of the day were the the Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund XLK, up 1.4%, followed by the Consumer Discretionary Select Sector SPDR Fund XLY, up 1.3%, and the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR Fund XLC, up 1.1%.

Latest Economic Data:

In May 2023, the U.S. personal consumption expenditure price index increased 3.8% year-on-year, the lowest reading since April 2021, compared to a downwardly revised 4.3% increase in April.

Excluding food and energy, the PCE price index, the Federal Reserve’s preferred inflation gauge, increased 4.6% year-on-year, compared to market expectations of 4.7%, and April’s 4.7% increase.

Personal spending in the United States increased by 0.1% in May 2023, falling short of both market expectations of a 0.2% increase and April’s 0.6% increase.

The Chicago Business Barometer, also known as the Chicago PMI, rose to 41.5 points in June 2023, up from 40.4 points in May 2023, but still fell short of market expectations of 44.

The University of Michigan consumer sentiment index for the United States was revised higher to 64.4 in June 2023, the highest in four months, from a preliminary number of 63.9.

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Stocks In Focus:

• Carnival Corp. & plc. CCL climbed over 8% after Jefferies upgraded the stock from Hold to Buy.
• Solar stocks soared, with Enphase Energy, Inc. ENPH and SolarEdge Technologies, Inc. SEDG up 4.4% and 4.6% respectively.
• SoFi Technologies SOFI fell 4.1% despite the U.S Supreme Court blocking President Joe Biden‘s plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt for the benefit of up to 43 million Americans.

Commodities, Bonds, Other Global Equity Markets:

Crude oil rose 1.1%, with a barrel of WTI-grade crude trading above $70. The United States Oil Fund ETF USO was 1% higher to $63.60.  

Treasury yields fell slightly, after rising the day before, with the 10-year yield up down 3 basis points to 3.81% and the two-year yield flat at 4.87%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT was 0.8% higher at midday. 

The dollar fell, with the U.S. dollar index, which is tracked by the Invesco DB USD Index Bullish Fund ETF UUP, down 0.5%. The EUR/USD pair, which is tracked by the Invesco CurrecyShares Euro Currency Trust FXE, was 0.5% higher to 1.0916.

European equity indexes closed in the green. The SPDR Euro Stoxx 50 ETF  FEZ rose 1.5%. 

Gold rose 0.5% to $1,917/oz. The SPDR Gold Trust GLD was 0.6% higher to $178. Silver rose 0.8% to $22.70, with the iShares Silver Trust SLV up 1.1% to $20.95. Bitcoin BTC/USD was 0.8% lower to $30,218.

Staff writer Piero Cingari updated this report midday Friday. 

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