Major U.S. stock indexes on
Friday ended a volatile week on a modestly high note, boosted by Nike's
well-received quarterly report, with the S&P 500 tallying its best first
half of the year since 2013.
Nike shares rose 11 percent after
the world's largest footwear maker reported a quarterly profit that topped
estimates and said it would launch a pilot online sales program with Amazon.com.
Nike shares gave the biggest boost to the Dow industrials and the S&P 500.
The S&P technology index ended
down 0.1 percent and posted its first monthly loss of the year, while a decline
in biotech shares .NBI, which had surged of late, also limited the Nasdaq.
Tech has led the S&P 500's
8.2 percent rally this year, but its recent pullback suggests investors may be
cashing in those profits to rotate to other sectors.
"Are we going to see a
broadening of the rally, where you see more of the financials and other sectors
fill in some of the gaps?" said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz
& Associates Inc., an investment advisory firm in Toledo, Ohio.
"It hasn’t been a broad
encompassing rally that I think investors will have to see a little bit more
conviction rather than just in a handful of stocks," Lancz said.
The Dow Jones Industrial
Average rose 62.6 points, or 0.29 percent, to 21,349.63, the S&P
500 gained 3.71 points, or 0.15 percent, to 2,423.41 and the Nasdaq
Composite dropped 3.93 points, or 0.06 percent, to 6,140.42.
Industrials were the top performing
sector, rising 0.8 percent.
"When you look at some of
the stocks that are doing particularly well today, they are some of those
economically sensitive-type stocks," said Chuck Carlson, chief executive
officer at Horizon Investment Services in Hammond, Indiana.
"During a time when it seems
like there are still a fair amount of naysayers out there about the economy and
GDP, anytime you get some of those stocks showing some strength, it probably
emboldens the market,” Carlson said.
With the second quarter coming to
a close, the S&P 500 recorded its biggest percentage first-half gain since
climbing 12.6 percent in the first six months of 2013. The Nasdaq posted its
biggest first-half gain since 2009.
U.S. consumer spending rose
modestly in May and inflation cooled, pointing to a slow-but-steady economic
expansion. The Commerce Department data bolstered the view that the U.S.
economy is rebounding in the second quarter.
Investors have been concerned
about recent mixed economic data at a time that the Federal Reserve begins
lifting interest rates from very low levels.
Second-quarter corporate results
are set to begin in earnest in the coming weeks, with S&P 500 companies
expected to post an 8-percent rise in earnings, according to Thomson Reuters
I/B/E/S.
Investors have been looking for
earnings to support historically high valuations, with the S&P 500 trading
at about 18 times earnings estimates for the next 12 months compared to the long-term
average of 15 times.
"We can talk about the
economy and geopolitical risk but earnings drive the market," said Chris
Bertelsen, chief investment officer of Aviance Capital Management in Sarasota,
Florida. "We’re bumping right along the top end of" historic
valuation levels.
About 6.6 billion shares changed
hands in U.S. exchanges, below the 7.3 billion daily average over the last 20
sessions.
Advancing issues outnumbered
declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.60-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.01-to-1 ratio
favored decliners.