Dow, Nasdaq close higher Friday, extending rally to a seventh winning week

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed higher Friday after a whipsaw session, where it marked a fresh intraday record, and the tech-heavy Nasdaq-100 set a record close. All three major averages scored their seventh-straight winning week. The Dow closed up 56 points, or 0.2%, at 37,305.16. The S&P 500 slipped 36 points, or 0.01%, to 4,719.19 while the Nasdaq Composite closed up 52 points, or 0.4% at 14,813.92. The Nasdaq-100 ended Friday at 16,623.45, topping a record close dating back to November 2021. Price moves may have been exaggerated by the simultaneous expiration of stock index futures and options, as well as options on individual stocks, in the quarterly event known as “triple witching. Shares of Costco closed up 4.5% after hitting an all-time high during the session. The retailer surpassed Wall Street’s estimates for quarterly results and issued a dividend of $15 per share. As of Friday, the Dow is higher on the month by 3.8%. The S&P 500 is up by 3.3%, while the Nasdaq Composite has climbed 4.1% so far in December. The S&P 500 marked its longest weekly winning streak since 2017, and could still soon join the Dow with its own all-time high. The broad market index is less than 2% away from that mark, which was set in January 2022. Wall Street rallied this week after the Federal Reserve on Wednesday admitted that its efforts to tamp down inflation are taking hold, and indicated three interest rate cuts are coming in 2024, buoying investor sentiment. The November retail sales data that came in stronger than expected on Thursday, following this week’s cooler inflation readings, added to hopes the Federal Reserve could navigate a soft landing. That said, New York Fed President John Williams pushed back on the euphoria around the central bank easing rates next year. “We aren’t really talking about rate cuts right now,” Williams told CNBC’s Steve Liesman in an interview on Friday. “Stocks got a major sentiment boost from Wednesday’s Fed meeting, but that immediate effect was bound to wear off,” said Chris Larkin, managing director of trading and investing at E-Trade. “The market doesn’t go up every day, no matter how strong a trend is. Pullbacks and pauses are inevitable, regardless of how big they are or how long they last.”