More records, barely, as stocks rise for 7th day
NEW YORK — U.S. stocks made the tiniest of gains Friday as media companies and sellers of beauty products and food ticked higher. Major indexes added to their winning streak and record highs.
Stocks spent the day flipping back and forth between small gains and losses. Beauty products maker Ulta rose after a strong first-quarter report and competitor Coty climbed as well. Media companies including Comcast and Disney also advanced while video game and drug companies slipped. The market has been steady in recent months, and with investors looking forward to the Memorial Day holiday Monday, trading was light.
It was the seventh gain in a row for the Standard & Poor’s 500 index and Nasdaq composite following their biggest loss this year.
“Investors have been conditioned over multiple years to buy the dip any time there’s a market pullback,” said Jason Draho, the head of American tactical asset allocation for UBS Wealth Management. He said that’s one reason stocks have been so steady lately.
The S&P 500 added 0.75 points to 2,145.82. The Dow Jones industrial average dipped 2.67 points to 21,080.28. The Nasdaq composite rose 4.94 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,210.19. The Russell 2000 index of small-company stocks fell 1.14 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,382.24.
Some of the market’s biggest moves were based on company earnings, and many of those came from consumer-focused companies. Ulta Beauty gained $9.36, or 3.1 percent, to $302.40. Costco Wholesale rose $3.13, or 1.8 percent, to $177.86 after the warehouse club had a strong quarter as sales and member payments both increased.
The VIX, an index that is called Wall Street’s “fear gauge” because it measures how much volatility investors expect, fell for the seventh day in a row. After a huge spike last Wednesday, the 27-yearold index is trading near all-time lows. It sank to 9.81 Friday. The only time it was lower was late December 1993.
The Commerce Department said the U.S. economy grew 1.2 percent in the first quarter, which was still weak but better than it originally estimated. Mr. Draho, of UBS Wealth Management, said that when the economy is steady, the market usually is, too. The economy and stock market have both been moving up for eight years. Mr. Draho said that as a bull market gets older, stocks don’t move in the same direction as often. When one stock or one sector rises and another falls, that makes the overall market flatter and less volatile.
Crude oil prices bounced back from a sharp drop the day before. Benchmark U.S. crude rose 90 cents, or 1.8 percent, to $49.80 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, the international standard, added 69 cents, or 1.3 percent, to $52.15 a barrel in London.
On Thursday a group of 24 nations including the OPEC countries agreed to a nine-month extension of a cut in oil production.