The WSJ reports,"U.S. stocks rose Friday, with the S&P 500 drifting to a record high to cap a sleepy week for trading activity.
The S&P 500 added 8.04 points, or 0.4%, to 1900.53. The index rose 1.2% on the week to top its May 13 record close of 1897.45.
It was a quiet week on Wall Street, with little in the way of economic data or companies’ earnings reports. Friday saw 4.5 billion shares change hands, the lowest volume of any day this year. The Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, a measure of traders’ expectation for future stock-market swings, fell to a multimonth low.
Some of the activity traders did see reflected the fallout of this spring’s rout in fast-growing technology and biotechnology companies’ stocks. To some degree, participants who had fled to the exits amid that selloff have been playing catch-up on this week’s move higher, said Doug Crofton, head of U.S. cash equity trading at Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
“From a positioning standpoint, clients are underinvested and are not prepared for a move higher in the market,” Mr. Crofton said. “There’s a chase to increase exposure” to stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average tacked on 63.19 points, or 0.4%, to 16606.27 on Friday. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 31.47 points, or 0.8%, to 4185.81.
Stock-market bulls have stayed the course amid continued evidence of slow but steady improvement in corporate profits and the U.S. economic backdrop. Meanwhile, some say stocks look attractive in comparison to bonds paying historically low interest rates.
Skeptics point to the fact a long-awaited acceleration in economic activity has yet to emerge, and last year’s rally has left stocks less attractively valued.
With earnings reports in for 490 of the 500 companies in the S&P 500, 74% have posted profits that topped Wall Street’s forecasts, according to FactSet. But analysts expect that earnings rose just 2.1% from the year-earlier period, including actual results for companies that have reported".
