S&P 500, Nasdaq post one-year high

Wall Street ended at record high on Friday, while the S&P 500 and Nasdaq notched their best weekly gains in more than a year as technology stocks helped lift major indexes to the records.

With the New Year’s Day holiday falling on a Monday this year, it was the strongest first four trading days to a year in more than a decade for all three major indices, according to Reuters data.

For the Dow, it was the strongest start since 2003 and for the Nasdaq and S&P 500 it was the strongest since 2006, reports Reuters.

The Dow broke above 25,000 for the first time on Thursday, while the S&P closed above 2,700 on Wednesday and the Nasdaq settled above 7,000 earlier in the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 220.74 points, or 0.88 per cent, to 25,295.87, the S&P 500 gained 19.16 points, or 0.70 per cent, to 2,743.15 and the Nasdaq Composite added 58.64 points, or 0.83 per cent, to 7,136.56.

The S&P technology index’s 1.2-per cent gain led the advancers among the 11 major S&P sectors, with gains in Microsoft, Apple and Google-parent Alphabet boosting the index.

The year’s strong start follows a surprisingly sharp rally in 2017 that ended with the S&P 500 up 19.4 percent on the year.

For the week, the Dow rose 2.3 per cent, the S&P 500 gained 2.6 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 3.4 per cent. Those were the biggest weekly gains for the S&P and Nasdaq since December of 2016.