- U.S. stocks rose on Friday, boosted by a rally in technology stocks that sent the Nasdaq to an intraday record.
- Investors also analyzed new speech from several central bank speakers throughout the day.
- "I don't want to have to raise rates again," Atlant Fed President Raphael Bostic said.
U.S. stocks rose on Friday, boosted by a rally in technology stocks that took the Nasdaq to a record high and helped the S&P 500 close above 5,100 for the first time in history.
The tech-focused Nasdaq Composite rose 1.14% on Friday, continuing its climb after closing last month at its first all-time high since 2021. The rally has been fueled by the ongoing AI euphoria that has fueled stocks like Nvidia to rise 70% so far this year. . On Friday, Dell Technologies sharesshot up 31% more to an all-time high as investors cheered its latest earnings, which included a positive AI-related trading update.
Investors also examined a series of comments from Federal Reserve officials on Friday to assess where interest rates might be headed this year.
Atlanta Fed President Raphael Bostic said he would like to wait for inflation to drop enough so the Fed can avoid reversing course and raising rates again after the cuts.
"I don't want to have to raise rates again," he said. "It will probably take longer before inflation returns to our 2% target. I'm willing to wait."
Also on the inflation front, Federal Reserve Governor Adriana Kugler said she was "cautiously optimistic" that continued disinflation will occur alongside a resilient labor market.
Meanwhile, two-year bond yields fell 10.8 basis points to 4.53% after Federal Reserve Governor Christopher Waller said he would like to see the Fed increase its ratio of bonds to short term.
Here is where the US indices were at the closing bell at 4:00 pm on Friday:
Here's what else is happening:
In commodities, bonds and cryptocurrencies:
