Dow, S&P 500 hit record highs as tech stocks soar

Stocks climbed on Friday, pushing the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average to record closing highs.

The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 1.2% to close at 4,839. This marked the S&P 500’s first record close since January 2022. The Dow (^DJI) gained just over 1% to settle at 37,863.

On a percentage basis, the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) was the day’s biggest winner, rising 1.7% to close at 15,310. The Nasdaq’s record close stands at 16,057, reached in November 2021.

Investor focus this week turned back to Big Tech stocks pushing markets to new heights as the late 2023 rally waned.

Strong retail sales data and an upbeat reading on consumer sentiment saw investors push out expectations for the Federal Reserve’s first interest rate cut to May from March. Still, optimism that the fundamental driver of last year’s rally in Big Tech — investment in AI — would continue powered the sector higher and helped lift the major indexes to record levels.

Read more: What the Fed rate-hike pause means for bank accounts, CDs, loans, and credit cards

And as Truist’s co-CIO told Yahoo Finance this week, the math linking the “Magnificent Seven” to the fortunes of the overall market is simple — with these names holding a roughly 30% weight in the S&P 500, as Big Tech goes, so goes the market.