Wall Street rises, on track for weekly gains after business activity data

By Abigail Summerville and Johann M Cherian

(Reuters) -All three stock indexes gained on Friday, headed for weekly gains as investors took comfort from data pointing to robust economic activity in the world's biggest economy.

A measure of business activity raced to a 31-month high in November, boosted by hopes for lower interest rates and more business-friendly policies from President-elect Donald Trump's administration next year.

The domestically focused small-cap Russell 2000 index outperformed large-cap indexes with a 1.7% rise. The index hit its highest in more than a week and was set for weekly advances of nearly 4%.

Meanwhile, Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL ) lost 1.4%, following Thursday's 4% drop, as the U.S. Department of Justice argued to a judge the company was monopolizing online search.

AI bellwether Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA ) fell 3.2% on Friday in choppy trading following its quarterly forecast on Wednesday.

An index tracking S&P 500 value stocks outperformed with a 0.74% rise as investors rotated out of their growth peers.

"I’ve been looking for this leadership change to go from technology to everything else. I think we may be in the midst of that shift. Small caps are acting much better, values are acting better," said Mark Hackett, Chief of Investment Research at Nationwide.

At 2:00 p.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 344.79 points, or 0.79%, to 44,218.78, the S&P 500 gained 16.51 points, or 0.28%, to 5,965.22 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 20.38 points, or 0.11%, to 18,992.80.

The S&P and the Dow reached one-week highs on Friday.

The S&P 500 communication services sector led declines with a 0.4% loss. Consumer discretionary stocks boosted the S&P, rising 1.3%.

Expectations on the Federal Reserve's policy move in December have recently swayed between a pause and a cut, as investors weigh the likely impact of Trump's plans on price pressures.

There is a 59.6% probability the central bank will lower borrowing costs by 25 basis points, as per the CME Group's (NASDAQ:CME ) FedWatch Tool.

Geopolitics were top of mind this week as investors monitored a missile exchange between Ukraine and Russia, after Moscow lowered its threshold for a nuclear retaliation. The markets are also awaiting Trump's Treasury Secretary pick.

"The fact that we’ve been calm on a nice, steady stair step pattern higher is very encouraging and reflective of the fact that investors aren’t acting with the emotion that they could be given the amount of uncertainties we’ve faced," Hackett said.

In company news, Gap Inc (NYSE:GAP ) jumped 11% after the Old Navy parent raised its annual sales forecast and said the holiday season was off to a "strong start".

Intuit (NASDAQ:INTU ) lost 5.3% after the TurboTax parent projected second-quarter revenue and profit below Wall Street estimates on Thursday.



Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.19-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 2.43-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 78 new 52-week highs and no new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 156 new highs and 69 new lows.

Source: Investing.com