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US stocks rose on Friday, ending a five-day losing streak.
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The consumer discretionary and technology sectors led the gains, signaling a shift to risk.
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Positive manufacturing data from ISM and political stability with Mike Johnson’s re-election helped push stocks higher.
US stocks rose on Friday, ending a five-day losing streak Standard & Poor’s 500, Dow Jonesand Nasdaq 100.
High-risk stocks in the consumer products and technology sectors led the market higher.
Stocks hit session highs around the same time Congressman Mike Johnson was re-elected Speaker of the House, suggesting infighting within the GOP may be more tame than in previous months.
A blog post by Microsoft President Brad Smith, who said the company expects to spend $80 billion on data centers in 2025 amid the ongoing artificial intelligence craze, also helped boost technology stocks on Friday.
“Not since the invention of electricity has the United States had the opportunity it has today to harness new technology to revitalize the country’s economy,” Smith said.
Nuclear stocks rose On a wave of analyst enthusiasm for the sector related to demand from artificial intelligence data centers. Shares of Constellation Energy Group and Vistra Corp rose 4% and 8.5%, respectively. Constellation on Thursday announced a $1 billion deal to provide power to more than a dozen government agencies.
Chip titan Nvidia jumped more than 4% during the session.
Investors were encouraged by ISM manufacturing data for December, which came in at 49.3%, representing a nine-month high. That was well above economists’ estimates of 48.0%, and higher than November’s reading of 48.4%.
Looking ahead to next week, investors will focus on several economic updates, including unemployment claims, preliminary consumer confidence, and the US December employment report.
Here is where US indices stand at the closing bell at 4:00pm on Friday:
Here’s what else happened today:
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