The U.S. stock market is rising toward the finish of an eighth straight winning week on Friday, which would be its longest such streak since 2023.
The S&P 500 added 0.6 per cent and pulled closer to its all-time high set in the middle of last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 307 points, or 0.6 per cent, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.6 per cent higher.
Ross Stores climbed 7.7 per cent after the off-price retailer reported profit and revenue for the latest quarter that easily cleared analysts’ expectations. CEO Jim Conroy said it saw strong customer traffic through the three months, and the company may have benefited from households spending their tax refunds.
Estee Lauder jumped 11.5 per cent after saying it was no longer considering a possible merger with Puig, the Spanish fragrance and beauty products company.
Workday rose 6.5 per cent, and Zoom Communications jumped 15.5 per cent after both delivered better profit reports for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
They’re the latest companies to join the long list topping analysts’ expectations for growth in profit for the start of 2026. Such strong reports have helped U.S. stocks rally to records, even as pressure grows from high inflation created by the war with Iran.
Oil prices were calmer Friday following yo-yo moves earlier in the week. They’ve been swinging hour-to-hour because of uncertainty about when the United States and Iran may find a deal to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, which would allow oil tankers to exit the Persian Gulf again and deliver crude to customers worldwide.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, rose 0.5 per cent to US$103.05. Benchmark U.S. crude, meanwhile, rose 0.4 per cent to US$96.68 per barrel after erasing an earlier modest dip.
Worries about inflation staying high because of the war have pushed bond yields higher worldwide, threatening to slow economies worldwide and undercut prices for stocks, bitcoin and all kinds of other investments. They’ve already forced the average long-term U.S. mortgage rate to its most expensive level since last summer, and they could curtail companies’ borrowing to build the AI data centers that have supported the U.S. economy’s growth recently.
Yields eased a bit Friday, releasing some of the pressure on the stock market.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.54 per cent from 4.57 per cent late Thursday, though it remains well above its 3.97 per cent level from before the war.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe and Asia.
Japan’s Nikkei 225 climbed 2.7 per cent to another record after a report showed inflation hitting a four-year low in April, at 1.4 per cent, despite higher prices for oil and gas due to the war.
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Chan Ho-him And Matt Ott, The Associated Press.