On Friday, U.S. stocks ended another strong week, according to the Associated Press.
- The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 125.08 points, or 0.3%, to 39,512.84.
- The S&P rose 8.60 points, or 0.2%, to 5,222.68, marking its third straight winning week after a mostly disastrous April.
- The Nasdaq fell $5.40, or less than 0.1%, to 16,340.87.
The S&P rose to within 0.6% of its all-time high, reigniting hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve might cut interest rates before the end of the year. A series of positive reports about the profits of major US companies that exceeded expectations also supported the market. Gen Digital soared 15.3% after reporting profits for the first three months of 2024 that beat analysts’ expectations. The cyber safety company, whose brands include Norton and LifeLock, also authorized a stock repurchase program of up to $3 billion. The company joins a growing list of companies announcing such large-scale programs to help investors grow earnings per share.
Novavax nearly doubled, jumping 98.7% after announcing a deal with Sanofi that could be worth more than $1.2 billion. The agreement includes a license to co-commercialize Novavax’s coronavirus vaccine worldwide, with certain exceptions. Novavax also reported a loss for the latest quarter that was slightly smaller than analysts expected. Although profits beat expectations, they helped offset Akamai Technologies’ 11% decline in revenue. The cloud computing, security and content distribution company also released several financial forecasts that were lower than analysts expected. The company said the rising value of the U.S. dollar against other currencies, along with slowing traffic growth across the industry, is hurting its business. This helped overshadow the company’s announcement of a stock buyback program worth up to $2 billion.
(Other stock market stories.)
