Feb. 9 (UPI) — Thanks to a fifth week of favorable U.S. economic news, the S&P 500 on Friday closed above the 5,000 mark for the first time.
The landmark closing comes after a positive period of economic growth and technological advances and a “better-than-expected” earnings season. Also, inflation fears have been lower than previously expected.
On Thursday, the broad-based S&P 500 — first launched in 1957 — first rose to the 5,000 mark before closing below it.
Round numbers such as 5,000 can often provide investors with “a psychological area of support or resistance for the market,” Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist at LPL Financial, said.
Turnquist added that a close above the 5,000 level “will undoubtedly create headlines and further feed fear of missing out (FOMO) emotions.”
Stock earnings to this point have shown to be better than expected with a total of 81% of 332 S&P companies who have reported earnings above their original financial projections.
Most of the S&P gains have consistently been coming from what is being called the “Magnificent Seven” companies — Nvidia, Microsoft, Meta, Amazon, Apple, Alphabet and Tesla.
According to CNN’s reporting, the S&P 500 is up near 5.4% for 2024.
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