Wall Street benchmarks closed at fresh record highs on Thursday (Friday AEST), supported by renewed optimism surrounding artificial intelligence stocks and reports that the United States and Iran had reached a draft agreement to extend their ceasefire for 60 days.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 24.7 points, or 0.1%, to 50,669.0, while the S&P 500 advanced 43.3 points, or 0.6%, to 7,563.6. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite climbed 242.7 points, or 0.9%, to 26,917.5.
According to Reuters, the draft ceasefire agreement still requires approval from Donald Trump.
Technology and growth stocks led gains as investor confidence in the artificial intelligence sector strengthened.
Microsoft gained 3.5% after technology publication The Information reported the company would release a new coding model next week.
Shares in Snowflake surged 36% after the cloud data analytics company lifted its annual product revenue forecast and announced a five-year AI infrastructure agreement worth US$6 billion (A$8.43 billion) with Amazon Web Services.
Healthcare giant Eli Lilly rose 4% after CVS Health said it would restore coverage for the drugmaker’s weight-loss injection Zepbound and add its newly approved obesity pill Foundayo.
Among other notable movers, Dollar Tree climbed almost 18% after the discount retailer upgraded its full-year profit outlook.
Best Buy advanced 15.8% after forecasting second-quarter sales above analyst expectations.
Drone-related stocks also moved higher after the Wall Street Journal reported that the Trump administration was considering funding support for drone companies. Shares of Unusual Machines jumped nearly 11%.
Investor sentiment was further supported by softer-than-expected inflation data. The Commerce Department reported that the personal consumption expenditures (PCE) price index increased 0.4% in April on a seasonally adjusted basis, below economists’ forecasts for a 0.5% rise.
Annual inflation jumped 3.8% in the 12 months through April, the largest rise since May 2023.
The softer monthly inflation reading raised hopes that pricing pressures may be easing, although the annual inflation rate remained well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% target.
Meanwhile, first-quarter U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) growth was revised lower to an annualised pace of 1.6%, with economists expecting momentum to moderate further during the current quarter.
On the bond markets, the benchmark 10-year Treasury yield fell 0.7% to 4.453%, while the two-year Treasury yield eased 0.3% to 4.027%.
