S&P 500 Breaks 6,000 Points, Dow Soars Above 44,000, Small Caps Eye Strongest Week In 4 Years, Tesla Hits $1 Trillion: What's Driving Markets Friday?

The S&P 500 index surged past the 6,000-point milestone, setting fresh record highs, and small-cap stocks are poised for their best weekly performance since April 2024 as investor optimism surrounding the “Trump trade” continued to fuel a strong risk-on sentiment by the end of a wild week in the market.

All major U.S. indices posted modest gains in midday trading, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average leading slightly, soaring beyond the 44,000-point mark. The blue-chip index is set for its best weekly performance in over a year.

Friday's rise in the S&P 500 was powered by the utilities and real estate sectors, which had lagged post-election. Tech stocks took a breather following Thursday's rally.

Tesla Inc. TSLA surged 7%, pushing its weekly gains beyond 27% and propelling its market cap past $1 trillion.

This move now places every "Magnificent Seven" tech stock in the trillion-dollar club, with the group's combined market cap topping $17 trillion.

Treasury yields held steady, while the dollar strengthened in response to the Federal Reserve's Thursday 25-basis-point rate cut to 4.5%-4.75%.

Gold softened, eyeing its worst week since late May, as both silver and oil dropped over 2% on the day. Bitcoin BTC/USD edged up 0.8%, extending its weekly gains to over 11%, marking its best week since July.

Friday’s Performance In Major US Indices, ETFs

Major Indices	Price	1-day %chg
Dow Jones	43,993.21	0.6%
S&P 500	5,998.81	0.4%
Russell 2000	2,389.50	0.3%
Nasdaq 100	21,124.53	0.1%

According to Benzinga Pro data:

• The SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY rose 0.4% to $598.17.
• The SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average DIA rose 0.6% to $439.89.
• The tech-heavy Invesco QQQ Trust Series QQQ inched 0.1% higher to $514.10.
• The iShares Russell 2000 ETF IWM rose 0.3% to $237.08.
• The Utilities Select Sector SPDR Fund XLU outperformed, rising 1.8%. The Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLB lagged, down 1%.

Friday’s Stock Movers

Stocks reacting to earnings reports were:

• NRG Energy Inc. NRG, up 0.5%,
• Ubiquiti Inc. UI, up 21%
• Arista Networks Inc. ANET, down 7%,
• Airbnb Inc. ABNB, down 7.5%,
• Motorola Solutions Inc. MSI, up 6.7%,
• EOG Resources Inc. EOG, up 5.9%,
• Fortinet Inc. FTNT, up over 9%,
• The Trade Desk Inc. TTD, down over 4%,
• Monster Beverage Corp. MNST, up by 0.5%,
• Axon Enterprise Inc. AXON, up 25%,
• Block Inc. SQ, down 4.4%,
• Cloudfare Inc. NET, down 6.2%,
• Corpay Inc. CPAY, up 6%,
• Expedia Group Inc. EXPE, up over 6%,
• Toast Inc. TOST, up 13%,
• Pinterest Inc. PINS, down 17%,
• DraftKings Inc. DKNG, up 1.7%,
• Insulet Corp. PODD, up 12%,
• News Corp. NWS, up 3.6%,

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Illustration created using artificial intelligence via Midjourney.