Dow Industrials Finish at Record High
3 min read 
U.S. stocks were mixed Friday but finished higher for a third consecutive week.
The blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up about 74 points, or 0.2%, to 35677, a new record high, in 4.p.m. trading. The S&P 500 index shed around 0.1%, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite fell 0.8%.
Stocks have risen in recent days after strong earnings results from some of the biggest U.S. corporations. Most S&P 500 companies that have reported earnings have beat analysts’ expectations, and corporate profits are expected to jump around 35% in the latest quarter from the prior year, according to Refinitiv data.
The latest financial results from companies like
and
showed that companies have been able to insulate themselves from the global supply-chain crisis and deliver strong results. Some companies have been passing down higher prices to customers.
On Friday,
shares rose around 5.5% after the credit-card company posted a rise in earnings that beat analysts forecasts, in part helped by more consumers dining out.
“It’s still a solid backdrop for the stock market,” said Gabriela Santos, global market strategist at JPMorgan Asset Management.
Market volatility has edged lower this week while investors have piled into the stock market, sending major indexes to highs. The Cboe Volatility Index closed at 15.01 Thursday, its lowest close since February 2020. Some investors have turned to the options markets in recent sessions to wager on a continued stock rally, betting that the gains will continue through the end of the year.
While the broader market has been calmer in recent sessions, there have been big moves in individual stocks and other assets.
Investors have also piled into bitcoin, sending prices to a high this week after the first bitcoin ETF started trading. Oil prices have kept soaring. Brent crude oil has jumped for nine consecutive weeks—the longest winning streak since 1999—to $85.53 on Friday, near its high of the year.
the blank-check company taking the new social network of former President
public, more than doubled in a frenetic trading session that was reminiscent of January’s meme stock mania. The shares were halted at least six times in trading Friday and are now up more than 800% this week, a lurch higher that is unusual even for SPACs, which tend to be volatile.
The shares have far outperformed an ETF tracking SPACs, the
Defiance Next Gen SPAC Derived ETF,
which has gained around 0.4% this week. Chatter about the shares permeated Reddit and
And tech shares lagged past the broader market on Friday, continuing a recent trend in which investors have ditched shares of the high-flying companies and bought energy and financial stocks.
shares fell around 26%, on track for the largest one-day fall on record, after the social-media company said changes to Apple’s privacy rules would hurt its ad business. Other technology shares also slipped, with
falling more than 5% and Google parent company
down 3%.
“When you look at the overall index, you would think things are all calm,” said Brian Bost, co-head of equity derivatives in the Americas at
“The reality is there’s a lot of volatility.”
And recent earnings showed that some companies are struggling with parts shortages, spurring big moves in individual stocks.
shares fell roughly 12% after the chip maker posted earnings late Thursday. Component shortages are weighing on Intel’s computer shipments and China’s gaming crackdown is hurting sales of chips used in servers.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note rose to 1.654% on Friday, from 1.574% last week.
Overseas, the pan-continental Stoxx Europe 600 rose 0.5%, led by its technology sector. Asian stock markets were mixed. Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.3%. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng Index rose 0.4%, while in mainland China, the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.3%.
Snap said changes to Apple’s privacy rules would hurt its ad business.
Photo:
Drew Angerer/Getty Images
Write to Will Horner at william.horner@wsj.com and Gunjan Banerji at gunjan.banerji@wsj.com.
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