U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday as
investors held out hope for a peace deal between Iran and the
United States and as SpaceX shares surged in their debut, making
it Wall Street’s biggest public listing in history.
The United States and Iran signalled that an agreement to end
their war was close, with a senior U.S. administration official
saying a draft proposal was in place that was liked by both
sides. U.S. President Donald Trump has said several times since
mid-March that a deal with Iran to end the war was close.
Market participants were glued to shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX
, which began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. Its
shares closed up 19.2% at $160.95, well above the IPO price of
$135 apiece. Its market capitalization was last at $2.1
trillion.
Shares of other space stocks, which soared in the lead-up to
the debut, eased on Friday. Rocket Lab’s stock fell
10.8%, while Intuitive Machines was down 13.1% and
Planet Labs declined 8.8%.
The reported progress in peace talks helped to lift
sentiment, said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of
Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“There’s still hope for a peace deal. Trump called off the
attacks … Third parties are confirming a peace deal is
happening.”
That puts pressure on oil prices and reduces worries about
higher inflation and interest rates, he said.
Investors were also looking ahead to next week’s Federal
Reserve policy meeting, which will be the first under the
leadership of Kevin Warsh. Traders will be looking for any signs
of whether a rate hike is likely as fed funds futures traders
price in a 55% chance of an increase by December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 353.51 points,
or 0.70%, to 51,202.26, the S&P 500 gained 37.16 points,
or 0.50%, to 7,431.46 and the Nasdaq Composite gained
79.18 points, or 0.31%, to 25,888.84.
The small-cap Russell 2000 nabbed a record closing
high.
Stocks also ended higher for the week, with each of the
three major indexes up roughly 7% for the period.
But U.S. equity funds saw their first weekly outflow in three
weeks, and earlier this week the technology index
confirmed a correction. Analysts believe some of the recent
weakness could be due to traders trimming holdings ahead of
SpaceX’s debut.
SpaceX is now ranked among the biggest publicly listed U.S.
companies.
Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies
at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he was
surprised by the lack of volatility in SpaceX so far, given the
hype around the IPO.
IPOs of AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic are also highly
anticipated later in the year.
SpaceX, which also includes Starlink and xAI, has already defied
some Wall Street conventions.
Some analysts have voiced caution, however, over the
fundamentals of the company, which posted more than $4 billion
in annual losses last year.
“Sentiment could easily turn sour because SpaceX is truly
overvalued at this level,” Dollarhide said.
Shares of Tesla, another Musk company that trades at a
premium to its earnings, ended 1.8% higher.
On the flip side, Adobe slid 6.8% after the exit of CFO
Dan Durn.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.07-to-1 ratio
on the New York Stock Exchange. There were 372 new highs and 66
new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 2,678 stocks rose and 2,185 fell as advancing
issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.23-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500
posted 35 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows while the Nasdaq
Composite recorded 200 new highs and 112 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.73 billion shares, compared
with the 20.7 billion average for the full session over the last
20 trading days.