The Dow hit a record for the second day in a row. The S&P 500 has its best weekly streak since 2023

The blue-chip index of the U.S. stock market, the Dow Jones, set a new record at the close for the second day in a row. The other three major indexes also rose, while Treasury bond yields declined despite the fact that oil rose in price. The S&P 500 posted its eighth straight week of gains, the longest such streak since December 2023, CNBC noted. At the same time, it remains unclear whether the U.S. and Iran are moving toward an agreement to end the war, as investors expect, and consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell to a low in May, the channel notes.

- The broad market index S&P 500 on Friday rose by 0.37% and ended the day at 7473.47 points. At the end of the week, it added less than 1%.

- The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.58% onMay 22 and reached a new high of 50,579.7 points. During the week, the DJIA increased by about 2%.

- The index of the technology sector Nasdaq Composite rose by 0.19% to 26,343.97 points. The index added about 0.5% on the basis of weekly results.

- The Russell 2000 index of small and mid-capitalization companiesrose 0.9% to 2,868.7 points. During the week it rose by more than 2%.

- Brent crude futures rose 0.9% to $103.5 a barrel, while WTI crude was little changed at $96.4 a barrel.

- Gold fell 0.77% to $4508 an ounce on Friday.

- Bitcoin fell 2.3% overnight to $75,870 per token.

A delegation from Qatar arrived in Tehran on Friday in coordination with the United States to help push for an agreement to end the conflict, Reuters reported, citing a source. Nearly three months after the conflict began, Iran and the U.S. are still exchanging proposals. Pakistan's army chief, who is seen as the preferred mediator between Washington and Tehran, has also arrived in the Iranian capital, Bloomberg wrote. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said "little progress" had been made in the talks.

Iran is not close to a deal with the U.S., and the meeting with Pakistan's army chief does not mean that such a deal is close, Islamic Republic News Agency reported citing Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei, Bloomberg reports. After these reports, oil rose moderately on Ma 22, but remained below the peaks reached this week: traders still hope that the U.S. conflict with Iran may soon be resolved, CNBC writes.

The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury bonds fell nearly 3 basis points to about 4.56%. The yield on 30-year securities also lost more than 4 basis points and traded around 5.06%. Volatility in the bond market pressured stocks this week, with 30-year bond yields reaching their highest since 2007 before falling, and 10-year bond yields rising to their highest in more than a year. Traders feared that a protracted U.S.-Iran war would keep oil prices elevated and add to inflationary pressures.

The U.S. and Iran have been at an impasse since a ceasefire agreement was reached in April, Bloomberg stresses, and traders are closely analyzing the economic impact of the conflict. In May, according to the University of Michigan, consumer sentiment in the U.S. fell to a record low and long-term inflation expectations deteriorated markedly due to the war.

Shares of Nvidia, the world's most expensive public company, continued to decline on Friday after a strong report, losing another 1.9%. At the same time, the technology sector showed moderate growth at the end of the week. According to Barron's, IBM may receive about $1 billion from the U.S. Department of Commerce to create a separate quantum manufacturing facility, Anderon. This news caused IBM's securities to rise 17.5% for the week. For the company's shares, this is the best weekly performance in 25 years. Qualcomm shares soared nearly 11.6% on Friday after it was revealed that automaker Stellantis will use the Snapdragon Digital Chassis and Snapdragon Ride Pilot platforms in its future vehicles.

Health care sector stocks were the best bet this week. The S&P 500 Health Care Sector rose 3.4% for the week and became the strongest sector within the S&P 500, writes Barron's. Moreover, the dynamics for the week became for securities in this sphere the best for six months. The second most dynamic sector for the week was the real estate sector, which added 3%.

- "Global risk appetite has improved despite lingering uncertainty around the conflict with Iran," Manulife Investment Management senior portfolio manager Nathan Tuft said as quoted by Bloomberg.

- "This is a market where everything is rising," CNBC quoted Interactive Brokers chief strategist Steve Sosnick as saying. - "The market is telling you today that investors are far more afraid of missing any Middle East peace agreement than they are of risking going into the weekend with long positions.

- Investors this week found plenty of positives in the latest reports from a number of major U.S. retailers, including Walmart, Home Depot, Target and Lowe's, Brian Mulberry, senior portfolio manager at Zacks Investment Management, told MarketWatch. While the strong results did little to help the stocks of the retailers themselves (Walmart's drop after the report was attributed to a disappointing outlook), the broad market took them positively, he argues. "They disprove the notion that we're heading toward stagflation or recession," Mulberry said.

This article was AI-translated and verified by a human editor