S&P 500 HITS RECORD PEAK AS STOCKS SCORE BIG GAINS

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq set record closing highs on Friday as investors bought energy, financial and materials shares and sold big tech stocks in anticipation of new fiscal aid from Washington to help the US economy recover, Herbert Lash reported for Reuters.

The major indices traded in a tight range during the week in which investors rotated out of growth-oriented stocks that have dominated an almost year-long rally and bought cyclical and underpriced value stocks.

The S&P 500 set hit an all-time peak on Friday, while the Nasdaq and Dow did earlier in the week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 27.7 points, or 0.09%, to 31,458.4, the S&P 500 gained 18.45 points, or 0.47%, to 3,934.83 and the Nasdaq Composite added 69.70 points, or 0.5%, to 14,095.47. Volume on US exchanges was 13.27 billion shares.

The small-cap index rose for the fifth week out of six full weeks this year. PayPal Holdings Inc rose 4.7% after several brokerages raised their price targets following the payments company’s investor day call a day earlier.

Walt Disney Co reported a surprise quarterly profit. However, its shares fell 1.7% from a record high after a more than 13% run up to its results over the last two weeks.

Dating app operator Bumble Inc jumped 7.3%, a day after a stellar debut sent its shares up more than 75%.

Chief Executive Officer Whitney Wolfe Herd’s stake in the women-centric dating app operator was worth nearly $2 billion. The S&P energy, financials and materials sectors rose on expectations they will benefit from a reopened economy, while heavyweights Apple Inc, Tesla Inc and Microsoft Corp were lower most of the session. All three closed higher in a late market surge.

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