By Saeed Azhar, Twesha Dikshit and Utkarsh Shetti
NEW YORK, May 29 (Reuters) – Wall Street’s main indexes hit record closing highs on Friday and posted weekly and monthly gains as Dell results drove tech shares higher, while investors awaited details on a potential U.S.-Iran deal.
President Donald Trump said in a social media post that he would make a final decision on the Iran deal on Friday. Tehran earlier said it was looking for action, not words, when it came to an agreement.
Dell surged 32.8% after raising its full-year profit and revenue forecasts on Thursday. The tech sector climbed 1.87%, fueled by gains in chip stocks.
Peers Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Super Micro Computer gained 12.6% and 11.6% respectively. Microsoft climbed 5.4%.
The software services index also advanced by over 6%, erasing all losses since January-end, when concerns over AI disruption had weighed on the sector.
Earlier in the session, all three indexes hit intraday record highs, cruising on renewed optimism around AI and strong earnings growth, despite concerns about the Iran war’s impact on inflation and the global economy.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 363.37 points, or 0.72%, to 51,032.34, the S&P 500 gained 16.44 points, or 0.22%, to 7,580.07 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 55.15 points, or 0.21%, to 26,972.62.
The small-cap Russell 2000 index was down 0.6%.
For the week, the S&P 500 gained 1.43%, the Nasdaq rose 2.39%, and the Dow climbed 0.9%. The Russell 2000 index rose 1.72%.
For the month, since April 30, the S&P 500 gained 5.15%, the Nasdaq rose 8.36%, and the Dow climbed 2.78%. The Russell 2000 index rose 4.24%.
The S&P 500 registered its ninth consecutive weekly gain, its longest winning streak since December 2023.
EARNINGS-DRIVEN RALLY
“There’s definitely euphoric sentiment in the market around AI. The rally has really been driven by earnings,” said Ohsung Kwon, chief equity strategist at Wells Fargo.
He suggested investors buy and hold AI stocks, then earn extra income by selling call options at prices much higher than the current stock price.
Melissa Brown, head of investment decision research at SimCorp, said over the past few weeks volume has gone up, which suggests more people are coming into the market.
The S&P 500 communications services sector dropped, as Alphabet declined by 2.5%.
Consumer staples shares were weak, with heavyweights Costco and Walmart down 3.9% and 2.6% respectively.
The S&P automaker index dropped after reports the Trump administration wants North American-built vehicles to have 82% regional content to qualify for preferential treatment under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Agreement.
Shares of General Motors fell 1.3% and U.S.-listed shares of Stellantis dropped 2.7%.
U.S. 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% annual rise.
The Fed’s Kansas City President Jeffrey Schmid warned the energy shock may not be temporary. Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman said a persistent rise in inflation might require tighter monetary policy.
Money markets expect the Federal Reserve to keep interest rates steady for the rest of the year, with expectations of a 25-basis-point hike in December.
Among other movers, Gap shares tumbled 15.4% after the apparel retailer cut its annual sales forecast, while American Eagle Outfitters dropped 11.8% after keeping its annual comparable sales forecast unchanged.
Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.04-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 491 new highs and 102 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,378 stocks rose and 2,486 fell as declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.05-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 125 new highs and 54 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 23.9 billion shares, compared with the 19.36 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.
(Reporting by Twesha Dikshit and Utkarsh Hathi and Saeed Azhar in New York; Editing by Joyjeet Das, Devika Syamnath, Rod Nickel)