US: S&P 500 closes at 5th straight record

[NEW YORK] The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at fresh all-time records on Friday (Jul 25) amid optimism over US trade deals, concluding a winning week on a positive note.

Markets stayed hopeful that US President Donald Trump’s trade deal with Japan this week will be followed by accords with other major trade partners, averting major tariffs due at the White House’s Aug 1 deadline.

Investors have also greeted generally benign data that suggest the US economy is on solid ground, said Angelo Kourkafas of Edward Jones.

“That might change in the months ahead, but for now, we have an economy that is holding up,” Kourkafas said.

The broad-based S&P 500 finished at 6,388.64, up 0.4 per cent, its fifth straight closing record.

The tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index rose 0.2 per cent to 21,108.32, closing at a third straight record, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.5 per cent to 44,901.92.

Besides trade negotiations, investors are looking ahead to a heavy earnings calendar next week, with Apple, Amazon and other large tech companies reporting results.

Those are the market’s largest companies, “so any hiccups there will have an implication for the broader market”, Kourkafas said.

Among individual companies, Intel dropped 8.5 per cent after reporting a US$2.9 billion loss as it announced further cost-cutting initiatives. The company said it has cut about 15 per cent of its workforce.

But Deckers Outdoor surged 11.4 per cent after reporting better than expected results. Revenues at the footwear retailer jumped 16.9 per cent to US$964.5 million. AFP