Wall Street closed its latest winning week with more gains Friday, pushing stocks to new heights.
- The S&P 500 rose 40.81 points, or 0.8%, to 5,137.08, after hitting an all-time high on Thursday, per the AP. It's now climbed in 16 of the past 18 weeks.
- The Dow rose 90.99 points, or 0.2%, to 39,087.38.
- The Nasdaq rose 183.02 points, or 1.1%, to 16,274.94.
Dell Technologies helped drive the stock market after jumping 31.6%. The company reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, highlighting demand for its AI-optimized servers. A seemingly never-ending crescendo of demand for artificial intelligence technology has helped catapult stocks higher over the past year. Dell has more than tripled in the last 12 months, while Nvidia has surged more than 260%. NetApp leaped 18.2% after reporting stronger results than expected, saying it's seeing "good momentum in AI." The data company forecast a profit range in the current quarter that topped what several analysts were expecting.
The mood was much more dour in the banking industry, where New York Community Bancorp tumbled 25.9%. It warned investors late Thursday that it found weakness in how it internally reviews loans, caused by ineffective oversight, risk assessment, and monitoring activities. The company said it won't be able to file its annual report in time, and it took a charge worth $2.4 billion against its results for the last three months of 2023. Its CEO stepped down after 27 years with the company, effective immediately. While NYCB faces many issues that are specific to it, the worry has been that banks across the industry face challenges from loans made for real estate projects.
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