U.S. stocks closed the week near record highs

U.S. stocks surged to near record highs closing their best week of 2024 on Friday.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% for a fifth straight gain and is just 0.7% below its all-time high set in July. Microsoft, Broadcom and technology stocks helped the index recover previous week’s losses.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 297 points, or 0.7%. The Nasdaq composite added 0.7%.

Stocks also got support from the bond market, where treasury yields eased ahead of next week’s meeting of the Federal Reserve.

The S&P 500 rose 30.26 points to 5,626.02. The Dow gained 297.01 to 41,393.78, and the Nasdaq composite added 114.30 to 17,683.98 points.

Traders are not vey convinced that the Fed could cut 50 basis points, instead of the more traditional 25 basis points. The federal funds rate is currently sitting in a range of 5.25% to 5.50%.

The yield on the 10-year Treasury eased to 3.65% from 3.68% late Thursday. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for Fed action, fell more sharply to 3.58% from 3.65%.

Technology stocks were generally the market’s main drivers this week, particularly Nvidia and other big technology stocks that struggled earlier this summer on concerns their prices had shot too high in the frenzy around artificial intelligence. Nvidia rallied 15.8% over the week despite slipping 0.1% on Friday.

On the Wall Street, Boeing lost 3.7% as aircraft assembly workers walked off the job; Adobe fell 8.5% as investors were more focused on its financial forecasts for the current quarter, where some trends looked to be falling short of expectations.