The stock market extended its rally to a 9th straight week with the S&P 500 gaining 2.9% and surpassing its 50-day moving average. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 3.4% last week and the Dow Jones Industrial Average registered a 3.0% gain. Optimism around the trade war situation after China suggested that it is leaving the door open for trade talks with the U.S.
The broad market advance drove ten of the 11 S&P 500 sectors higher. The technology (+4.0%), communication services (+4.2%), and industrial (+4.3%) sectors were the top performers. The energy sector was alone in the red by Friday, dropping 0.7%.
Gains in the technology sector were helped by impressive quarterly reports from Microsoft (MSFT) and Meta Platforms (META). Apple (AAPL) was left out of the rally, dropping 1.9% this week following its earnings report and Amazon (AMZN) received a muted response to its earnings results, settling only 0.5%.
Last week featured some mixed economic data. The April Consumer Confidence Index slumped to 86, down from March’s level of 93.9 and GDP for the first quarter dropped 0.3%. Counteracting these weak data points was a stronger than expected Jobs report for the month of April. The US economy added 177,000 jobs in April and unemployment stayed unchanged at 4.2%.