Wall Street rises, Dow hits record high as West Asia hopes lift sentiment

Bond yields come down after peaking earlier in the week

US stocks rose on Friday, with the Dow reaching a record closing high, as investors cheered signs of progress in talks to end the West Asia conflict and a strong corporate earnings season.

The S&P 500 notched its eighth consecutive weekly gain, its longest since a nine-week streak ended in December 2023.

Semiconductor stocks, which have driven recent Wall Street gains, were mostly higher. The Philadelphia Semiconductor Index rose, lifted by a 12 percent jump in Qualcomm, while Nvidia slipped 1.90 percent.

The US has made some progress toward a deal with Iran, though more work remains, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Friday. Iran’s foreign ministry spokesman said differences between the two sides remained deep.

"Earnings season looked really good and the economic data, save a few outliers, looked pretty solid so fundamentally the picture looks really solid," said James St Aubin, chief investment officer at Ocean Park Asset Management in Santa Monica, California.

"The war has been one major speed bump along the road for at least the equity market but I think the headlines today looked encouraging and that was probably helping at the margin."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 294.04 points, or 0.58 percent, to 50,579.70, a record closing high. The S&P 500 rose 27.75 points, or 0.37 percent, to 7,473.47 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 50.87 points, or 0.19 percent, to 26,343.97.

Nine out of the 11 major S&P 500 sector indexes gained, led by healthcare, utilities, industrials and technology stocks.

Communications and consumer staples lost ground.

Shares of US computer makers surged following strong results from China's Lenovo Group 0992, which reported a better-than-expected 27 percent jump in quarterly revenue. Dell Technologies hit a record high after rising 17 percent while HP Inc gained 15 percent.

Long-dated government bond yields were lower, having pulled back from recent highs. The yield on benchmark US 10-year notes US10YT=RR fell 2.6 basis points to 4.558 percent.

"The bond market seems to be cooling off and yields are coming down from where they were starting to peak earlier this week and I think that's very encouraging too," St Aubin said.

Kevin Warsh was sworn in as chair of the Federal Reserve on Friday, taking the helm at a pivotal moment for the US economy as higher gasoline prices tied to the Iran conflict fuel inflation and weigh on consumer sentiment.

Estée Lauder rose 12 percent after the cosmetics maker and Spanish perfumery Puig PUIGb.MCended talks for a potential merger.

Workday gained 5 percent after the human resources software provider exceeded expectations for first-quarter revenue and profit.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.68-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 384 new highs and 79 new lows on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 29 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 131 new highs and 71 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 17.33 billion shares, compared with the 18.54 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.