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US stocks rose on Friday, snapping a five-day losing streak.
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The consumer discretionary and technology sectors lead the gains, signaling a shift to risk.
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Positive ISM manufacturing data and political stability with the re-election of Mike Johnson helped boost stocks.
US stocks jumped on Friday, snapping a five-day losing streak S&P 500, Dow Jonesand Nasdaq 100.
Risk stocks in the discretionary and technology sectors led the market higher.
Stocks hit record highs around the same time Congressman Mike Johnson was re-elected House Speaker, signaling that infighting within the Republican Party may be less than in previous months.
A blog post by Microsoft chairman Brad Smith, who said the company expects to spend $80 billion on data centers in 2025 amid the ongoing AI frenzy, also helped boost tech stocks on Friday.
“Not since the invention of electricity has the United States had the opportunity it has today to use new technology to power the nation’s economy,” Smith said.
Nuclear stocks rose on a surge of analyst enthusiasm for the sector related to AI data center demand. Shares of Constellation Energy Group and Vistra Corp. they increased by 4% and 8.5% respectively. On Thursday, Constellation announced a $1 billion contract to supply energy to more than a dozen government agencies.
Chip titan Nvidia jumped more than 4% in the session.
Investors were encouraged by December’s ISM manufacturing data, which stood at 49.3%, the highest level in nine months. This is well above economists’ estimates of 48.0% and above November’s reading of 48.4%.
Looking ahead next week, investors will be focused on several economic updates, including jobless claims, preliminary consumer sentiment and the US jobs report for December.
Here’s where US indices stood at the closing bell on Friday at 16:00:
Here’s what else happened today:
