Wall Street stocks powered to fresh records Friday, shaking off concerns about global growth and the Delta variant of Covid-19 that had pressured equities the day prior.
All three major indices closed at all-time highs, led by the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which finished up 1.3 percent at 34,870.16. The broad-based S&P 500 jumped 1.1 percent to 4,369.55, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index gained 1.0 percent to 14,701.92. Analysts attributed the rally to bargain hunting after Thursday’s losing session, along with relief at a jump in the yield of the 10-year US Treasury bond after it sagged below 1.3 percent on Thursday. “We’re in a bull market, and the path of least resistance is up,” said Maris Ogg of Tower Bridge Advisors. “You get some concerns like we did yesterday, and then people reconsider, and they come back and buy stocks again,” she said. “We’re in the second year of what will probably be at least a five-year expansion.”
This week’s sharp pullback in yields had been seen as suggesting weakening confidence in the medium-term global growth outlook, but the yield on the 10-year bond climbed sharply on Friday. A note Friday from Oxford Economics predicted yields on the 10-year note would move back towards 1.9 percent this year, citing “still-strong economic growth, elevated inflation, increased global vaccination rates and a more hawkish Fed.” Friday’s rally was broad-based, but banks did especially well in the wake of the rise in bond yields. Industrials, materials and energy shares were also especially strong.