The S&P 500 was in seventh heaven once again, closing out the week with seven straight record finishes, after adding 0.8% on Friday. This took the weekly gain to 1.7%.
The Dow Jones and Nasdaq also gained, up 0.4% and 0.8% for the day and 1.0% and 1.9% for the week.
The highlight was the latest employment report which showed payrolls increased by 850,000 jobs last month, just 6.8 million below its February peak.
That said, the unemployment rate increased to 5.9% in what some are calling a ‘goldilocks’ scenario where the signs are good for the economy but not necessarily enough to bring forward a rate hike.
The bond rate actually fell to 1.4% on the news, supporting the likes of Microsoft (NASDAQ: MSFT) and Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN), which were up 4.8% and 3.2% for the week.
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Chip makers’ run continues
The semi-conductor sector remains in rude health despite the global shortage with shares in Dutch equipment supplier ASML (NASDAQ: ASML) jumping 1.3% after Micron Technology (NASDAQ: MU) confirmed it would begin using ASML’s industry-leading technology from 2024.
Competitor ASM International (AMS: ASM) also reported much stronger sales than originally forecast.
US stock market movers
Here’s how other popular US stocks finished the week on Friday.
- Oracle (NYSE: ORCL) up 2.9%
- Alphabet (NASDAQ: GOOGL) up 2.3%
- Apple (NASDAQ: AAPL) up 2.0%
- Baidu (NASDAQ: BIDU) down 2.4%
- IBM (NYSE: IBM) down 4.6%
Despite the positive lead from US markets, the S&P/ASX 200 (ASX: XJO) is expected to open flat on Monday. For all the latest, check out Rask Media’s ASX 200 morning report.