Wall Street closed higher on Friday as markets monitored developments between the United States and Iran. The Nasdaq Composite, the S&P 500 and the Dow ended in positive territory. The three major indexes also posted mixed results for the week.
How Did the Benchmarks Perform?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJI) rose 0.3%, or 149.60 points, to close at 52,637.01. Eighteen components of the 30-stock index ended in positive territory, and 12 ended in the negative.
The Dow's major gainer was NVIDIA Corporation NVDA. The stock price of this semiconductor company rose 4%. NVIDIA currently carries a Zacks Rank #3 (Hold). You can see the complete list of today's Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.3% to close at 26,281.61.
The S&P 500 gained 0.4% to end at 7,575.39. Out of the 11 broad sectors of the broad-market index, 10 ended in positive territory, while one was in negative territory. The Materials Select Sector SPDR (XLB), the Communication Services Select Sector SPDR (XLC) and the Consumer Staples Select Sector SPDR (XLP) rose 1.1%, 0.9% and 0.9%, respectively, while the Health Care Select Sector SPDR (XLV) fell 0.8%.
The fear gauge, the CBOE Volatility Index (VIX), decreased by 5.1% to 15.03. A total of 14.5 billion shares were traded on Friday, lower than the last 20-session average of 22.4 billion.
U.S.-Iran Tensions Stay in Focus
President Donald Trump said on Friday that the United States would continue to hold talks with Iran but that the “ceasefire” between the two countries, which lasted for a month, had now come to an end. Iran denied requesting talks, saying it had instead agreed to host a Qatari mediator to help ease tensions, as reported by Reuters.
The diplomatic efforts come after several hostilities in the last week between Iran and the United States. The hostilities included attacks on commercial oil tankers in the Strait of Hormuz, U.S. strikes against Iranian targets and Iran’s retaliatory strikes on U.S. military bases in the region. The United States is currently seeking a public guarantee from Iran that safe passage will be granted to all vessels through the Strait of Hormuz.
Weekly Roundup
U.S. stocks ended the week mixed. The S&P 500 gained 1.2%, the Nasdaq advanced 1.7%, while the Dow slipped 0.5% for the week.
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