S&P 500 posts longest weekly winning streak since 2017; finishes flat on day

There was seesaw action on all the indexes swinging back and forth between black and red four times on the Dow before finally closing with modest gains, making it the third record close in a row for the Dow and the seventh weekly gain for the S&P, its longest streak in six years. Today’s cold water came from the New York Fed prez who came out as the lone cynic on rate cuts dampening the day’s (and week’s) ebullience. As today’s expert put it, “What we got this week was Powell not wanting to punish the economy with higher rates for longer for no good reason. We could drift higher from here.”  

For the week, all the indexes are up between 2.5 and 2.9%. Today also marked one of those odd Fridays of the pesky “triple witching” when the enormous number of quarterly derivative contracts expire, thus dramatically and quite misleadingly surging volume, today to a huge 19.7 billion.  The good news included a pickup in business activity, further allaying fears of a sharp Q4 slowdown. 

S&P 500 posts longest weekly winning streak since 2017; finishes flat on day

By Caroline Valetkevitch

Fri December 15, 2023 5:05 PM

DJ: 37,248.35  +158.11        NAS: 14,761.56  +27.60        S&P: 4,719.55  +12.46     12/14

DJ: 37,305.16  +56.81          NAS: 14,813.92  +52.36        S&P: 4,719.19  -0.36        12/15

NEW YORK, Dec 15 (Reuters) - The S&P 500 ended a choppy session little changed on Friday but registered a seventh straight week of gains in its longest winning streak since 2017 after this week's dovish pivot by the Federal Reserve.  The Dow Jones industrial average notched a record high close for the third session in a row.  Comments Friday by Fed Bank of New York President John Williams that it was too soon to be talking about rate cuts dampened some of the day's optimism.  Also, the rate sensitive real estate (.SPLRCR) and utilities (.SPLRCU) sectors fell more than 1% each, giving back some of this week's gains.

Stocks rallied after the Fed in its policy statement Wednesday signaled lower borrowing costs in 2024. An index of semiconductors (.SOX) rose 9.1% for the week, its biggest weekly percentage gain since May.

"What I think we got this week is that (Fed Chair Jerome Powell) doesn't want to overly punish the economy with (rates) being higher for longer for no good reason," said Kim Forrest, chief investment officer at Bokeh Capital Partners in Pittsburgh.  "I don't know if we're going to get whatever is considered a Santa Claus rally, but it looks like all things being considered, we could drift higher from here."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI) rose 56.81 points, or 0.15%, to 37,305.16, the S&P 500 (.SPX) lost 0.36 points, or 0.01%, to 4,719.19 and the Nasdaq Composite (.IXIC) added 52.36 points, or 0.35%, to 14,813.92. 

For the week, the Dow gained 2.9%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.8% and the S&P 500 added 2.5%. 

The day also marked the expiry of quarterly derivatives contracts tied to stocks, index options and futures, also known as "triple witching."  The day's volume was high. Volume on U.S. exchanges was 19.76 billion shares, compared with the 11.80 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. 

Shares of Costco Wholesale (COST.O) jumped 4.4% after the retailer topped Wall Street estimates for first-quarter results due to demand for cheaper groceries.  Earlier on Friday, a survey showed domestic business activity picked up in December amid rising orders and demand for workers, which could further help to allay fears of a sharp slowdown in economic growth in the fourth quarter. 

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 2.00-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.54-to-1 ratio favored decliners.  The S&P 500 posted 50 new 52-week highs and 2 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 180 new highs and 85 new lows.