Stock market today: S&P 500 notches longest weekly win streak since 2023, Dow climbs to record high

Stocks ended the week with gains, and the S&P 500 (^GSPC) recorded its longest weekly winning streak since 2023 with eight consecutive weeks in the green.

The S&P 500 rose 0.4% on Friday, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.6%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) advanced 0.2%. The three indexes logged weekly gains of 0.8%, 2.1%, and 0.4%, respectively.

The artificial intelligence trade came back in focus, which was apt for the tech-heavy week for investors. Nvidia (NVDA) stock fell almost 2% on Friday amid the fallout of its earnings report on Wednesday, a main event for markets.

Also this week, SpaceX (SPAX.PVT) filed its IPO prospectus, and Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the new Fed chair.

Oil prices turned higher on Friday afternoon as markets weighed mixed signals from negotiations between the US and Iran, mediated by Pakistan. Meanwhile, the US national average gas price stood at $4.55 per gallon, weighing on consumer sentiment.

Brent crude oil (BZ=F) traded at $103 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F), the US benchmark, traded at $96 per barrel. Although oil prices edged higher for the day, they were on track for weekly

Bloomberg reports:

Iran said the latest proposal from the US partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, but comments from the Islamic Republic’s supreme leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait of Hormuz clouded the outlook for a breakthrough. Meanwhile, the United Arab Emirates has made a more concerted push to end the war in recent days.

“Near term, oil futures seem to be pricing in some sort of an agreement as WTI prices pull back below $100/bbl,” said Dennis Kissler, senior vice president for trading at BOK Financial Securities Inc. “Still, traders are becoming more desensitized to the ongoing negotiation headlines.”

Read more here.

Hardware stocks vaulted higher as better-than-expected PC sales numbers from Lenovo (0992.HK) lifted expectations ahead of earnings.

Dell (DELL) stock, the biggest gainer in the S&P 500 on Friday, surged more than 16% to an all-time high. HP (HP), the second biggest gainer, rose 15.8%. Both companies report earnings next week.

Lenovo reported its highest PC, tablet, and smartphone sales in five years, according to Reuters, and PC sales increased 28% year over year. Shares of the Chinese consumer electronics company rose 19%.

PC makers have been grappling with constrained memory chip supplies as more memory is being diverted to support AI demand. Lenovo said that while there was likely some pull forward of demand for PC in the quarter due to the expectations of higher prices amid the supply crunch, a lot of the momentum was organic.

“We definitely observed strong demand, which might partially be linked to some pull in, but I don’t think that it will be a substantial number,” executive vice president Luca Rossi said on the earnings call.

President Trump swore in Kevin Warsh as Fed chair on Friday afternoon, commencing Warsh’s four-year term as the leader of the US’s central bank.

The Senate already confirmed Warsh for a 14-year term as a governor. As Fed chair, Warsh will have to maneuver the central bank through tricky economic conditions as the war in Iran and subsequent oil price shock have rekindled inflation. The labor market has stabilized, making interest rate cuts less likely this year.

“I will lead a reform-oriented Federal Reserve, learning from past successes and mistakes, both escaping static frameworks and models, and upholding clear standards of integrity and performance,” Warsh said in a speech.

In the East Room of the White House, Trump said he hoped for an independent Federal Reserve. “Don’t look at me, don’t look at anybody, just do your own thing and do a great job,” Trump said, addressing Warsh.

The central bank has been mired in questions surrounding that issue as Trump repeatedly lambasted former Fed Chair Jerome Powell on social media and attempted to fire a Fed official. Those concerns reared up again this year when the Department of Justice launched a probe into the central bank and Powell, though it later withdrew the investigation.

Powell, whose term as chair ended on May 15, will remain on the board of governors. My colleagues detailed the fallout between Trump and Powell and the biggest moments of his tenure as chair here.

Read more here.

Treasury yields may still be uncomfortably high, but the bond market is not yet in the “danger zone” for stocks, Laffer Tengler Investments CEO Nancy Tengler told Yahoo Finance on Friday.

Stocks rose on Friday as the 10-year yield (^TNX) dipped to 4.5% and the 30-year yield (^TYX) edged 3 basis points lower to 5.09%. The 30-year yield is still above the 5% psychological level that affects how investors view stocks, bonds, and Washington’s borrowing costs, but the stock market is shrugging off some of those concerns.

The Dow is at record highs, above 50,500, and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are a stone’s throw from their records.

“If we stay in a range around 5% — or certainly below is better — you will see investors return to stocks,” Tengler told Yahoo Finance’s Julie Hyman. “It’s time to watch and wait and not necessarily act.”

“I just don’t think the bond market is going to be the thing that derails the stock market,” she added.

Two things that could derail the bull market, however, would be a deceleration in earnings growth and a collapse in historically high operating margins, according to Tengler.

Strategists continue to point to strong double-digit earnings growth in the first quarter as the factor propping up stocks. S&P 500 companies are pacing for a 28.4% blended growth rate, according to FactSet.

Consumers’ pessimism about the US economy deepened in May as high gas prices, which are rapidly approaching $5 per gallon on average, weighed on Americans’ finances.

The University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment fell to 44.8, a record low just below the 2022 trough.

“The cost of living continues to be a first-order concern, with 57% of consumers spontaneously mentioning that high prices were eroding their personal finances, up from 50% last month,” the survey’s director Joanne Hsu said. “Lower-income consumers and those without college degrees posted particularly strong sentiment declines; these groups are more sensitive to increases in the cost of gas and other essentials.

Year-ahead inflation expectations inched up to 4.8% from 4.7% last month. They are well above the 3.4% reading seen in February 2026, prior to the start of the Iran conflict.

Long-run inflation expectations climbed to 3.9% in May from 3.5% in April.

Read more here.

Stocks climbed to start the trading session as investors cautiously awaited news on a breakthrough in the US-Iran conflict and Treasury yields eased.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) rose 0.5% to add to its record-high close on Thursday. The blue-chip index crossed 50,500 on Friday morning.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) added 0.63% and was on track for its longest weekly winning streak in three years. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) rose 0.7%.

Helping to lift stocks was an easing in oil prices and bond yields. Brent (BZ=F) crude futures, the international benchmark, hovered around $102 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) crude prices, the US benchmark, traded at $95 per barrel.

The 10-year yield (^TNX) eased back to 4.5%, and the 30-year yield (^TYX) retreated to just above 5%.

Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reports:

Shares of the maker of Rao’s pasta sauce, Snyder’s pretzels, Goldfish crackers, and Campbell’s chicken noodle soup are now hovering at 30-year lows. The stock is down about 19% since the company reported earnings in March.

Only General Mills (GIS), Conagra (CAG), and McCormick (MKC) have performed worse since The Campbell Company’s last earnings report: They have declined 21%, 24%, and 26%, respectively.

Campbell’s had a dreadful quarter. Net sales dropped 5% year over year to $2.56 billion, under estimates of $2.64 billion. Consumers pulled back on discretionary snack purchases. The core Meals & Beverages segment grappled with lower demand for traditional condensed soups.

Read more here.

Booz Allen Hamilton (BAH) stock jumped 5% after adjusted earnings of $1.78 per share exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for earnings of $1.32 per share.

However, the contractor’s revenue of $2.78 billion fell short of Street forecasts.

Investors were looking for Booz Allen stock to bottom out after it lost 9% year to date, as concerns grew about its relationship with the Trump administration. In January, the Treasury Department canceled all 31 separate contracts with Booz Allen, amounting to $21 million, citing a failure “to implement adequate safeguards to protect sensitive data.”

In late April, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told Senate lawmakers that Treasury officials “no longer have confidence” in the company.

IBM’s (IBM) 11% stock rally on Thursday, following a landmark announcement by the US Commerce Department to award $2 billion in grants to fund domestic quantum computing firms, created a windfall for the company. And the stock rose another 3% on Friday morning.

The move added about $26 billion to IBM’s market cap, bringing it to $237.8 billion, Yahoo Finance’s Brian Sozzi reported. He writes:

IBM secured the single-largest allocation in the program — a $1 billion government grant — which the tech giant will match with $1 billion of its own capital to construct “Anderon” in Albany, New York. It’s being billed as America’s first pure-play, dedicated 300mm quantum chip manufacturing foundry.

The hype around this deal reflects a transition in IBM’s quantum roadmap from a long-term research and development project into a critical national-level manufacturing platform. In turn, the company is viewed as the primary infrastructure and foundry provider for its own hardware and that of its competitors.

Most analysts on Wall Street have come out in favor of the news.

Read more here.

Estée Lauder (EL) stock jumped 10% after late-stage merger talks with Spanish beauty group Puig (B1B.F) ended. Puig’s stock fell 13%.

Bloomberg reported that Charlotte Tilbury’s compensation demands for the deal were a sticking point in the negotiations. Charlotte Tilbury sold her makeup brand to Puig in 2020.

Estée Lauder, which owns cosmetics brands including Clinique and Mac, said the company remains focused on executing its turnaround strategy.

“Today, we are reiterating our confidence in the power of our incredible brands, our talented teams, and our strength as a standalone company,” CEO Stéphane de La Faverie said. “We are more optimistic than ever about our ability to unlock significant long-term value through Beauty Reimagined, and we remain focused on accelerating that progress.

Bloomberg reports:

Oil rose after three days of declines, as statements by Iran on uranium and the Strait of Hormuz pared earlier optimism over progress in the negotiations with the US.

Brent (BZ=F) climbed toward $105 a barrel, but is still down more than 4% this week. West Texas Intermediate (CL=F) was near $98. Iran said the latest proposal from the US partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, but comments from the Islamic Republic’s Supreme Leader about keeping Tehran’s uranium stockpile and a dispute over tolls in the Strait of Hormuz clouded the outlook for a breakthrough.

The conflicting statements on key issues left it unclear if the two sides were any closer to a deal after renewed threats of escalation in recent days, buffeting oil prices as traders try to gauge when energy flows through the strait will fully resume. The war and the curtailment in supplies has seen global stockpiles of crude oil and products being drawn down at a record pace, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc.

Read more here