Stock Market Today: Dow, S&P 500 and Nasdaq close higher Friday, score best week since November (2024)

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Strong retail-sales data Thursday helped offset concerns about pockets of potential weakness in the U.S. economy. The rally had stocks back on the doorstep of record territory and investors eager to hear more from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell at next week's economic summit in Jackson Hole, Wyo.

Here's the weekly recap:

Oil futures declined Friday as worries about demand prevailed, pulling U.S. benchmark prices down for the week.

U.S. oil futures fell to new lows for the week as Chinese data showed declining imports and refinery input demand suggested that a further slowdown in the Chinese economy will weigh on total global demand, Tyler Richey, co-editor at Sevens Report Research, told MarketWatch.

West Texas Intermediate crude for September delivery declined by $1.51, or 1.9%, to settle at $76.65 a barrel after trading as low as $75.54. Prices based on the front month ended nearly 0.3% lower for the week. October Brent crude, the global benchmark, lost $1.36, or 1.7%, at $79.68 a barrel, up just 2 cents for the week.

Prices for gold climbed to fresh record highs on Friday, tallying their 28th all-time settlement high for the year so far, with the precious metal finding support as market volatility this month attracted buyers to the “safety” of gold.

“There remain many market risks and gold buyers recognize the many and various instabilities around the world — geopolitically to financial, economic risks,” said Peter Spina, founder and president of investor website GoldSeek.com. "Gold is benefiting as a store of safety.”

Gold for December delivery climbed $45.40, or 1.8%, to settle at $2,537.80 an ounce on Comex after trading as high as $2,538.70. Based on the most active contract, prices notched a fresh intraday record high and an all-time settlement high and ended 2.6% higher for the week.

Central-bank purchases have been key to gold's climb. “Central-bank demand for gold has surged in the past 5 years, swallowing nearly 1 in every 10 ounces produced by the mining sector on official data,” Adrian Ash, BullionVault’s director of research, said in commentary this week.

Stocks have been staging a big comeback after a rough start to August.

But the Nasdaq Composite Index was on the cusp of an even bigger milestone on Friday as it advanced for a seventh straight day.

The index was up 8.8% over that stretch, on pace for its biggest seven-day gain since August 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

On a points basis, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 both were on pace for their largest seven-day gains in history.

The Dow was trading near the session's high in the final hour of trading Friday as the big three U.S. benchmark indexes looked to round out a blockbuster week of gains.

Here's where things last stood:

For the week, the Dow was up 3.1%, the S&P 500 was 4% higher and the Nasdaq was up 5.4%, according to FactSet.

Nvidia's stock is climbing 1.4% toward a fifth-straight gain, and is also headed for its biggest weekly rally in more than a year.

The stock is also on track to snap a four-week losing streak, which was the longest such streak since the five-week stretch through the week ended Oct. 14, 2022.

Helping fuel Friday's gain, Wedbush analysts said that despite recent investor concerns, they believe an "AI tidal wave" of spending is still coming. And they believe Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang will help support that optimism when Nvidia reports fiscal second-quarter results later this month.

The stock has run up 18.9% this week, which would be its best week since it soared 24.6% during the week ended May 26, 2023.

The stock is the third-best weekly performer in the S&P 500. In second is fellow AI play Super Micro Computer Inc.'s stock, which has shot up 22.6% this week.

Technology stocks have come back with a bang in the past week as investors have piled into the stock market after economic data soothed recession fears.

The S&P 500's biggest weekly gains were set to flow from its information-technology sector, which was up 7.5% in Friday afternoon trade and heading for its best week since November 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

More broadly, the S&P 500 was up 3.9% for the week, while the Dow was 2.9% higher and the Nasdaq was up 5.3% since Monday, according to FactSet.

Publicly traded companies have been buzzing about the U.S. presidential election during second-quarter earnings season — not about recession, according to FactSet.

John Butters, senior earnings analyst at FactSet, looked at second-quarter earnings call transcripts for S&P 500 companies and found a total of 116 mentions of "election" or "elections" — an increase of more than 75% compared with the second quarter of 2020, the year of the last presidential election.

As for talk of "recession," Butters found only 28 companies used the term in the second quarter, down from a 5-year average of 83 mentions.

Yes, it's still ugly out there for many office landlords.

But not all property owners have watched funding dry up. This week alone saw office real-estate investment trusts join other public landlords in raising nearly $2.5 billion in debt and equity, according to David Auerbach, chief investment officer at Hoya Capital Real Estate.

“Clearly, at the end of the day, tenants want the best amenities in the best cities,” Auerbach said in a phone interview Friday, adding that “all signs” suggest that “the debt and equity markets are open to these companies."

U.S. stocks were trading solidly higher in early-afternoon trading on Friday as the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite looked to extend their winning streaks to a seventh session.

The S&P 500 has gained 6.7% over the past seven days, on track for its best seven-day stretch since October 2022, according to Dow Jones Market Data.

The Nasdaq Composite has gained 8.7% over the same period, leaving it on track for its best seven-day gain since August 2022.

Both indexes were on track for their best weekly percentage-point gain since November 2023, as was the Dow Jones Industrial Average.

Here is where stocks were trading recently: