NEW YORK: Major Wall Street indexes extended their record run on Friday and were headed for weekly and monthly gains as Dell results drove tech shares higher, while investors awaited details on a potential US-Iran deal.
President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he would make a final decision on the deal on Friday. Tehran earlier said it was looking for action, not words when it came to an agreement.
Dell jumped almost 30 percent after raising its full-year profit and revenue forecasts on Thursday. The tech sector climbed up 1.8 percent, led by gains in chip stocks.
Peers Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer gained 15.5 percent and 12.7 percent, respectively.
All three indexes hit intraday record highs, cruising on renewed optimism around AI and strong earnings growth, despite some concerns about the Iran war’s impact on inflation and the global economy.
“We certainly haven’t seen the last of AI optimism. It’s particularly on the strength of first-quarter earnings,” said Melissa Brown, head of investment decision research at SimCorp.
“What we’ve seen over the past few weeks is volume going up, which suggests we’ve got more people coming in. Some people call it FOMO and once that rally gets going, people want to participate.”
The S&P 500 was on track for a ninth consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since December 2023.
Eight of the 11 main S&P 500 sectors were in the red. The S&P 500 communications services sector fell 1.3 percent, as Alphabet dropped 1.7 percent.
Consumer staples shares tumbled 2.2 percent with bigweights Costco and Walmart down over 3.5 percent each.
The S&P automaker index dropped 1.4 percent after reports the Trump administration wants North American-built vehicles to have 82 percent regional content to qualify for preferential treatment under the US-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
General Motors and US-listed shares of Stellantis were down about 2 percent each.
The software services index advanced 5 percent, erasing all losses since January-end, when concerns over AI disruption had weighed on the sector.
At 11:28 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 377.38 points, or 0.75 percent, to 51,044.40, the S&P 500 gained 23.64 points, or 0.31 percent, to 7,587.03 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 72.03 points, or 0.26 percent, to 26,988.24.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index was down 0.7 percent.
US economic data on Thursday showed inflation increased at its fastest pace in three years in April, while GDP for the first quarter was revised lower to a 1.6 percent annual rise.
The Fed’s Kansas President Jeffrey Schmid warned that the energy shock may not be temporary; Vice Chair for Supervision, Michelle Bowman, said a persistent rise in inflation might require tighter monetary policy.
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