Wall Street Notches 8th Straight Winning Week

Wall Street marked its eighth consecutive winning week with a subdued finish on Friday, following reports indicating a decrease in inflation and a potential economic upturn, as reported by Stan Choe for the Associated Press (AP).

The Nasdaq composite edged 0.2% higher. I Photo: Sami Keinänen Flickr

The S&P 500 rose 0.2%, sitting less than 1% below its record set nearly two years ago. The Dow Jones Industrial Average slipped 18 points, or less than 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite edged 0.2% higher.

Bristol Myers Squibb contributed to the market's rise, gaining 2% after announcing its acquisition of Karuna Therapeutics in a cash deal valued at $14 billion.

This helped offset an 11.8% slump for Nike, which cut its revenue forecast for its fiscal year, exerting downward pressure on the Dow.

In total, the S&P 500 increased by 7.88 points to 4,754.63. The Dow slipped 18.38 to 37,385.97, and the Nasdaq gained 29.11 to 14,992.97. In international stock markets, indexes were mixed in Europe and Asia.

Hong Kong’s Hang Seng dropped 1.7% after China released new regulations for online gaming. This development sent stocks of Tencent, China’s largest gaming company, and rival NetEase down sharply, as reported by Elaine Kurtenbach for AP.

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