S&P 500, Dow Jones Closing Month in Gains as Nasdaq Composite Breaks Trend


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S&P 500, Dow Jones Closing Month in Gains as Nasdaq Composite Breaks Trend

Major US stock indices S&P 500, and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDEXDJX: .DJI) have closed the month of May on a positive note after slight gains to Friday’s trading session. While the former grew 0.077% to 4,204.11, the Dow Jones recorded a growth of 0.19%, adding 64.81 points to close at 34,529.45. The Nasdaq Composite (INDEXNASDAQ: .IXIC) also closed the session up with a 0.091% growth to 13,748.74.

For the month of May, the S&P 500 (INDEXSP: .INX) added 0.6%, a growth boosted by the break-in its two- weeks losing streak, after the past week’s growth of 1.2%. The Dow Jones also ended the week with positive growth, surging 0.9% to close the month positively by adding 1.9%. The Nasdaq Composite came off with different performance, closing 1.5% lower to record its worst performance in seven months.

Unusually, the positive performance of the stock indices was not driven by the FAANG stocks or major tech firms. Facebook Inc (NASDAQ: FB) recorded a 1.21% loss to close Friday’s session at $328.73 per share. Apple Inc (NASDAQ: AAPL) dropped 0.53% to $124.61 while e-commerce giant Amazon.com Inc (NASDAQ: AMZN) slipped by 0.22% to $3,223.07. Netflix Inc (NASDAQ: NFLX), and Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc (NASDAQ: GOOGL) also dropped 0.21% and 0.25% with shares cresting at $502.81, and $2,356.85 respectively.

Amid these poor performances, however, Salesforce.com Inc (NYSE: CRM) led the growth in the Dow Jones, after it reported better than expected first-quarter earnings. The stock grew 5.43% to $238.10.

S&P 500, Dow Jones Growth Boosted by Growing Savings Rate

The broad performance of the S&P 500 and the Dow Jones was backed by the boosted savings rate which came in at 14.9% last month, as well as the consumer spendings that etched upwards by 0.5% per the estimates.

This economic metric appears enough for investors as the overall inflation indicated, the personal consumption expenditures index came in at 3.1% for April, a figure that is higher than the projected 2.9%.

“This report puts the Fed in a really good place, inflation is up, but real yields are still low. This is basically the transitory sweet spot,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group.

Other stocks that received increased retail investor activities include Reddit favorite, GameStop Corp (NYSE: GME) which ended the day with a loss of 12.64% after recording impressive growth in the intraday session. GameStop shared are exchanging hands at $222.70 in the After Hours session.

In all, the US stock market is proving to be recovering gradually from the woes of the COVID-19 pandemic. The vaccination program is yielding fruits as economic activities are returning back to the pre-pandemic levels.

S&P 500, Dow Jones Closing Month in Gains as Nasdaq Composite Breaks Trend