Friday's close caps off best half for Nasdaq in 40 years

Friday’s close caps off best half for Nasdaq in 40 years

Stocks rose Friday and technology names continued their staggering run to cap off a strong start to the year, and the best first half for the Nasdaq Composite since 1983.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 285.18 points, or 0.84 per cent, to close at 34,407.60. The S&P 500 climbed 1.23 per cent to end at 4,450.38, and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 1.45 per cent to settle at 13,787.92.

Mega-cap technology stocks responsible for a sizeable chunk of 2023′s market gains rose Friday. Dominant artificial intelligence chipmaker Nvidia jumped 3.6 per cent, bringing its yearly gains to more than 189 per cent. Netflix added about 2.9 per cent, while Meta Platforms, Microsoft and Amazon rose 1.9 per cent, 1.6 per cent and 1.9 per cent, respectively. Apple gained 2.3 per cent to hit a record high, closing above a $3 trillion market cap.

Elsewhere, Nike shares bucked the broad market uptrend. The apparel giant fell 2.7 per cent after reporting a weaker-than-expected quarterly profit.

And this morning, Tesla surpassed analysts' expectations with 83 per cent year-over-year delivery growth in Q2 2023, reporting a total of 466,140 deliveries and 479,700 production.

Friday marked a pivotal day for investors, bringing the conclusion of the month, second quarter and first half. The last six months saw 2022′s beaten-down growth names make a broad comeback as the promise of artificial intelligence and hope of an end to the Federal Reserve’s rate campaign lifted major tech players to astonishing heights.

This is where the major averages stand:

For June: The S&P 500 gained 6.5 per cent for its best monthly performance since October. The Nasdaq advanced 6.6 per cent. Both indexes notched a fourth consecutive positive month. The Dow climbed 4.6 per cent, for its best month since November.
For the second quarter: The S&P 500 rose 8.3 per cent for a third straight quarter of gains and its biggest quarterly advance since the fourth quarter of 2021. The Nasdaq jumped 12.8 per cent for back-to-back positive quarters. The Dow added 3.4 per cent for a third winning quarter.
For year to date and the first half: The S&P 500 popped 15.9 per cent for its best first half since 2019. The Nasdaq surged 31.7 per cent, for its best first half since 1983. The 30-stock Dow added a modest gain of 3.8 per cent.

The three major averages also notched winning weeks, gaining more than 2 per cent each.

Wall Street also got another hint of encouraging inflation news as the core personal consumption expenditures price index, a closely watched gauge by the Federal Reserve, rose less than expected in May.

In EV battery-related news, Indonesia and Australia are set to sign a joint agreement on battery production for electric vehicles, leveraging their abundant nickel and lithium reserves to challenge China's dominance in the industry, aiming to lead the global electric vehicle revolution and promote sustainable transportation.

And Chinese companies are flocking to the energy storage sector, with the number of registered energy storage companies more than doubling in the past three years, driven by massive state spending on President Xi Jinping's energy independence plan; battery technology is seen as a key component of China's carbon reduction goals and renewable energy deployment.

Friday, all US sectors closed higher. Technology was the best performer, whilst Real Estate recorded the fewest gains.

Futures

The SPI futures are pointing to a 0.41 per cent rise.

Currency

One Australian dollar at 7:30 AM was buying 66.64 US cents.

Commodities

Gold has gained 0.6 cent. Silver has gained 0.97 per cent. Copper has lost 1.64 per cent. Oil has gained 1.12 per cent.

Figures around the globe

Across the Atlantic, European markets closed higher on Friday. London’s FTSE added 0.8 per cent, Frankfurt gained 1.26 per cent, while Paris closed 1.19 per cent higher.

Turning to Asian markets, Tokyo’s Nikkei lost 0.14 per cent on Friday, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng lost 0.09 per cent and China’s Shanghai Composite closed 0.62 per cent higher.

On Friday, the Australian sharemarket closed 0.12 per cent higher at 7203.3.

Sources: Bloomberg, FactSet, IRESS, TradingView, UBS, Bourse Data, Trading Economics, CoinMarketCap.

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