U.S. stocks posted their ninth consecutive week of gains. This has not happened in three years

Hopes of a soon-to-be signed peace agreement between the US and Iran helped US stocks extend their historic series of gains. The S&P 500 index ended the trading week up for the ninth time in a row - its longest winning streak since 2023. And in general, this has happened only a few times in the past four decades, Bloomberg calculated. U.S. Treasury bonds had their best week since the Iran crisis began, the agency wrote.

- The S&P 500 broad market index rose 0.2% on Ma. 29, breaking a record. It added 1.4% for the week and over 5% for the month.

- The Nasdaq Composite Technology Index also rose 0.2%, ending trading at an all-time high. Since the beginning of the week, the index has risen 2.4%, while in May it jumped more than 8%.

- The blue-chip index Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.7% on Friday and also reached its peak level, crossing the 51,000-point mark. Growth for the week amounted to 0.9% and for the month - 2.8%.

- The Russell 2000 index of small and mid-capitalization companies fell 0.6% on Friday. But at the end of the week it remained in the plus side by almost 2%, and has risen more than 4% since the beginning of Ma.

- The Cboe VIX volatility index, often referred to as Wall Street's fear indicator, fell 3.1% to its lowest level in more than four months, MarketWatch notes. Now the index is at 15 points, the signal of increased volatility is considered to overcome 20 points.

- Brent crude futures were down 1.8% on Friday, just below the $92 per barrel mark. North American WTI fell 1.3%, trading at around $87.7 per barrel. Amid optimism over an expected peace agreement, Ma was the worst month for oil prices since the coronavirus pandemic, with prices plummeting 20%, MarketWatch wrote.

US President Donald Trump told social media outlet Truth Social on Friday that he is ready to make a "final decision" on a tentative agreement with Iran. This is a document that should extend the truce between the countries and launch separate negotiations on the nuclear program. However, several hours later, the American leader left the meeting in the White House Situation Room without coming to a decision, The New York Times reported, citing a source. At the same time, an administration official told the New York Post that the two sides had never been "this close" to an agreement. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent suggested that the U.S. may lift some sanctions on Iran depending on further developments, Bloomberg reported.

The market was largely supported by a strong report from AI server assembler Dell, in which it reported unprecedented revenue growth. Dell shares soared 33% on Friday to a new record, making it the best day in the company's history on the stock exchange, CNBC reports. The rally also gave a boost to rivals, with quotes for Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer jumping 12%. Dell warned that only a shortage of memory chips will hold back the company's sales in the second half of the year. Shares of memory maker Micron Technology rose 5% on Friday, hitting an all-time high, and the company's value rose 88% in total for the month of May. Shares of data storage maker SanDisk rose 3% to a record high.

The Technology Select Sector SPDR Fund ETF, which tracks chipmaker stocks, hit a new high for the year on Friday and added nearly 20% for the month. Broadcom also ended the day at a record high, up 4.7%.

The AI boom has even caught up with Ford shares, which had its best month in 17 years in Ma: the auto giant's capitalization gained 47%. Investors are increasingly focused on the company's new energy storage business. This area can benefit from the rapidly growing demand for electricity for data centers and AI services.

Software developer stocks rose sharply this week thanks to strong results from Snowflake and Okta. This signaled that some companies are weathering the changes brought about by artificial intelligence better than Wall Street expected, CNBC writes. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Proprietary Exchange-Traded Fund rose 8% for the week and ended Ma up 21%, its best monthly performance since October 2001.

- "We concede that the risk of a deal [between the U.S. and Iran] falling apart still remains. However, it looks like at least the cease-fire will be extended," Bloomberg quoted Matt Maley, chief market strategist at Miller Tabak, as saying. - The only question now is whether the stock market has priced in this outcome."

- "There's always the threat of a 'black swan' - that something somewhere will suddenly snap, but my gut tells me that this story [with the signing of the U.S.-Iran peace treaty] should come to a close very quickly," David Nicholas, CEO and founder of XFUNDS by Nicholas Wealth, told CNBC. - The market has already priced a lot of that into prices, but I think it opens it up to the possibility of continuing to move upward." Nicholas also noted that Dell has become "kind of emblematic of the story of expanding profit growth" through AI. "At first it was about chips and memory, but now it's a broad story about the entire AI infrastructure stack," he emphasized.

- "Interest in the stock is warranted," Emily Bowersock Hill, founder and CEO of Bowersock Capital Partners, told Bloomberg. - Investors expect the growth of AI infrastructure to continue to outweigh the negative impact of geopolitical turmoil. Stock markets are looking at corporate earnings. As long as profits are rising, stock prices can continue to climb."

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