Both indices closed the week higher for a second consecutive week, while the Nasdaq extended its winning streak to a seventh straight week with a new record high on Friday.
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Strong job growth, more stable oil prices and a crop of better-than-expected company earnings have helped lift stocks in recent weeks to record territory. Shares in Kohl’s jumped $6.83, or 18 percent, to $44.87. The company also said that next year it will close 100 of its Macy’s stores, about 14 per cent of its outlets under that banner, and boost its online investment.
Oil prices rose after Saudi oil minister Khalid al-Falih reportedly suggested Opec producers could agree to cut output next month.
The Dow, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and the S&P 500 all rose about half a percent to reach record closing highs, the first time they have done so on the same day since 1999.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) increased more than 0.6%, or 117.86 points to close at 18,613.52. The S&P finished the day at a new all-time high. The pan-European STOXXX 600 index finished up 0.8 per cent at 346.66 points, its highest level since the June 23 Brexit vote in the United Kingdom.
Initial jobless claims for the week of August 6 were 266,000 which was in-line with consensus estimates and 1,000 less claims than the week prior.
Investors bid up shares in several companies that reported strong earnings. The S&P fell 2 points, or 0.1 percent, to 2,184.
US oil prices surged 4.3% to trade at $43.49 a barrel on Thursday, making its largest session gain last seen on July 12.
Traders are now pricing in a 41.6 percent chance of a December rate hike, compared with 45 percent on Thursday, according to CME Group’s FedWatch tool. Oil and gas firms added 1.4%, while energy equipment companies rose 0.9%. Diamond Offshore Drilling was down 64 cents, or 3.1 percent, to $20.11. For the week, the retail sectorAAAs SPDR S&P Retail ETF gained 1.52%.
Yahoo, which owns a large stake in Alibaba, added 4.1 per cent.
Earlier, Japan’s Nikkei 225 lost 0.2 percent despite a report showing private sector machinery orders rebounded in June from May.
BONDS AND CURRENCIES: Bond prices fell.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.51 percent.
The German DAX rose 0.9 percent, France’s CAC 40 index rallied 1.2 percent and the U.K.’s FTSE 100 gained 0.7 percent.
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Dow Chemical DOW.N fell 2.1 percent and was the top drag on the material index followed by DuPont’s DD.N 1.6 percent drop, a day after European Union regulators opened a full investigation into their $130 billion merger deal. So even though Thursday’s “trifecta” has not happened in a long time, it does not indicate a higher likelihood of a sudden downward move now. The PowerShares DB US Dollar Index Bullish ETF (NYSE: UUP), which tracks the performance of the greenback versus a basket of foreign currencies, traded up 0.28 percent to $24.79.
