NEW YORK: Industrials led the Dow to a new closing high on Friday ahead of Monday's major sector reshuffle, capping a week that largely shrugged off trade worries.
Trading volume spiked to the highest level since Feb. 9 in anticipation of the S&P 500 sector change, when telecoms will be folded into a new sector called communications services, along with heavy-hitting stocks such as Facebook Inc
While the Dow closed higher, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq ended the session in negative territory. The S&P and the Dow posted weekly gains, with the Dow showing its biggest weekly percentage advance in over two months. The Nasdaq lost ground on the week.
"Quadruple witching," when stock options and futures expire, and the rebalancing of the S&P 500 and the Russell 2000 <.RUT> indexes also contributed to heavier traffic.
"A lot of those changes have been anticipated by the index funds, and they've prepared for it," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York. "But there's a lot going on."
Boeing Co
Yields on long-dated U.S. Treasuries edged down on Brexit anxieties even with Federal Reserve expected to hike key interest rates next week. Financial stocks <.SPSY> headed lower, ending their recent rally.
"Any time there is a rate hike you potentially see a flattening of the yield curve, which is not good for financials," said Ghriskey.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average <.DJI> rose 86.52 points, or 0.32 percent, to 26,743.5, the S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 1.08 points, or 0.04 percent, to 2,929.67 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> dropped 41.28 points, or 0.51 percent, to 7,986.96.
Telecoms <.SPLRCL> rose 1 percent on its last trading day as a discrete major S&P sector, and was the index's biggest percentage gainer.
All of the FAANG momentum stocks ended the session lower, with Facebook, Apple Inc
Shares of security and alarm company ADT Inc
McDonald's Corp
Under Armour Inc
A 2.9 percent drop in shares of Micron
Shares of Pier 1 Imports Inc
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.04-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.21-to-1 ratio favored decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 56 new 52-week highs and 1 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 64 new highs and 46 new lows.
Volume on U.S. exchanges was 10.77 billion shares, nearly 64 percent higher than the 6.57 billion average over the last 20 trading days. - Reuters
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