The stock market closed higher Friday, extending the Nasdaq composite's win streak to an astonishing 10 weeks.
XThe Nasdaq added 0.8% for the day and nearly 1% for the week. The S&P 500 rose 0.7% Friday and the Dow Jones Industrial Average 0.4%. Indexes closed near session highs after some morning weakness.
A few reasons the Nasdaq led were semiconductors, Amazon.com (AMZN) and Alphabet (GOOGL). The Philadelphia semiconductor index jumped 1%.
Alphabet, the parent of Google and the fourth largest Nasdaq component, rose nearly 2% Friday. Amazon.com rose 2% but remains in a horizontal trading range, about 18% off its prior high. The Wall Street Journal reported that Amazon plans to launch a chain of grocery stores with lower prices than its Whole Foods division. The news sent Kroger (KR) and other grocery chains lower.
Volume rose from Thursday's totals, according to preliminary data.
Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) surged past the 58.36 buy point of a cup-type base in heavy volume. The operator of entertainment arenas beat expectations despite another quarter of losses. Sales increased 12% to $2.6 billion. Live Nation is the Friday IBD Stock Of The Day feature.
Leading Stocks Climb
The Innovator IBD 50 ETF (FFTY) rose 0.6%, keeping pace with the major indexes. A number of software, financial and health care leaders outperformed. VMware (VWM) led with a 3.7% gain to a new high after the business software company beat profit expectations.
Health care and energy were Friday's best sectors. Energy Select Sector SPDR ETF (XLE) rose nearly 2% even though crude oil prices fell 2.5% to $55.77 a barrel. Energy Select Sector SPDR traded sideways for more than a week as it tries to recover from a severe decline in the final months of 2018.
Indexes opened higher but faded after the Institute for Supply Management's manufacturing index fell in February to its lowest level since November 2016. "Manufacturing has been booming for over two years, so a moderation should not be surprising," economist Joel Naroff noted. "Indeed, the index level still points to solid activity and the details generally support that view. "
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