U.S. stocks shook off early weakness to end higher Friday, but were unable to erase weekly declines.
Stocks were supported by data indicating an acceleration in economic activity and even faster growth in new home sales, as investors largely brushed off Thursday’s reports that President Joe Biden would propose a large increase on the capital-gains tax for the wealthiest Americans.
Read: Capital gains tax hike? Why the stock market bounced back so fast
A busy week of corporate earnings reports also came to a close with a majority of companies seeing better-than-expected results for the quarter, even if guidance for the rest of the year was mixed.
What did major benchmarks do?
-
The Dow Jones Industrial Average
DJIA
rose 227.59 points, or 0.7%, to close at 34,043.49, but ended the week down 0.5%. -
The S&P 500
SPX
gained 45.19 points, or 1.1%, to close at 4,180.17, after trading above its April 16 closing high of 4,185.47 during the afternoon, but ended the week down 0.1% . -
The Nasdaq Composite
COMP
jumped 198.40 points, or 1.4%, to 14,016.81, leaving a weekly loss of 0.3%.
On Thursday, the Dow tumbled 321.40 points, or 0.9%, for its biggest one-day fall since March 4, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite also fell 0.9%. For the week, the Dow lost 0.5%, the S&P 500 was down 0.1%, and the Nasdaq was 0.3% lower.
What drove the market?
Stocks rallied, with nearly all major sectors in the S&P 500 advancing, after the indexes turned south Thursday when Bloomberg News and others reported that Biden would propose a hike in the capital-gains tax rate to 39.6% from 20% for individuals making more than $1 million a year. While the reports dented sentiment, analysts noted that the proposal was in line with Biden’s campaign promises and predicted a hike would be scaled back in congressional negotiations.
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“The 39.6% figure is very much in line with the campaign pledge and shouldn’t shock, but the fact we’ve seen selling of risk suggests the market is far more sensitive to bad news, and this will happen when froth is prevalent,” said Chris Weston, head of research at Pepperstone, in a note. “Consolidation seems to the order here in the short-term and it feels like we’re at the mercy of a period of choppy price action,” he said.
TaxWatch: Biden has pledged to tax the rich — but precisely how will he do that? Experts consider his options
David Joy, Ameriprise Financial’s chief market strategist, also sees stocks recovering from the market’s surprising “knee-jerk reaction” to reports the White House will propose increasing tax rates. “It was no secret,” Joy said Friday in a phone interview. “President Biden had campaigned on those very details.”
Joy expects stocks will continue to be buoyed by a stronger economy as the pandemic persists.
In U.S. economic data, the IHS Markit purchasing managers index for the manufacturing sector rose to a record 60.5 in April from 59.1 a month earlier, while the services sector PMI jumped to 63.1 from 60.4. A reading of more than 50 indicates an expansion in activity.
“Supporting the rebound with equities was a record increase in business output,” Edward Moya, senior market analyst for the Americas at OANDA, said in a note Friday afternoon.
New home sales rose to a seasonally-adjusted annual rate of 1.021 million in March, the U.S. Census Bureau reported — the fastest pace since 2006. Month-over-month, sales rose 20.7%. Also, the Census Bureau revised the sales figure for February up to a rate of 846,000, from the originally reported rate of 775,000.
Which companies were in focus?
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Intel Corp.
INTC
shares fell 5.3%, despite a big earnings beat and raised annual guidance, as a large dip in data-center sales was offset by strength in sales of personal computers and a departing memory business. -
Shares of Snap Inc.
SNAP
jumped 7.5% after the social-media company posted first-quarter results that surpassed analyst estimates. -
Mattel Inc.
MAT
shares gained 0.8% after the toy maker reported a narrower-than-expected quarterly loss and said its sales surged nearly 50%. -
Boston Beer Co.
SAM,
known for its Sam Adams-branded beers, reported earnings late Thursday that soared past analyst expectations, buoyed in part by sales of hard seltzers. Shares closed more than 3% higher. -
Gap Inc.
GPS
shares rose 2.3% Friday, after the retailer said celebrated gymnast Simone Biles will work with its Athleta brand. -
Shares of Dow component Honeywell International Inc.
SHE
fell 2.1% after beating Wall Street estimates for earnings and revenues and revising its 2021 outlook. -
Schlumberger Ltd.
SLB
shares rose 1.8% after the energy-services giant posted better-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. -
Shares of American Express Co.
AXP
fell nearly 2% after the card company’s first-quarter revenue fell short of expectations. -
Kimberly-Clark Corp.
KMB
stock lost 5.9% after the consumer products company, whose brands include Kleenex, Huggies, Scott and Depends, reported first-quarter profit and sales that came in below expectations, and lowered its full-year outlook.
What did other markets do?
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The yield on the 10-year Treasury note
BX:TMUBMUSD10Y
was little changed Friday afternoon at 1.561%. Yields and bond prices move in opposite directions. -
The ICE U.S. Dollar Index
DXY,
a measure of the currency against a basket of six major rivals, fell 0.6% to 90.82. -
Bitcoin
BTCUSD
slipped 1.9% Friday afternoon in a move that some observers tied to tax jitters, trading below a key threshold at $50,000 for much of the day. -
Oil futures settled 1.2% higher at $62.14 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, but posted a weekly decline amid worries about a surge in COVID-19 cases in India and Japan.
-
Gold futures gave up modest early gains to trade lower, with the June contract
GCM21
down $4.20, or 0.2%, to settle at $1,777.80 an ounce. -
In Europe, the Stoxx 600 index
XX:SXXP
closed 0.1% lower and London’s FTSE 100
UK:UKX
ended the session unchanged. -
In Asia, the Shanghai Composite
CN:SHCOMP
rose 0.3%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HK: HSI
jumped 1.1% and Japan’s Nikkei 225
JP:NIK
fell 0.6%.