Wall Street ends the week on a high note
Although the recent developments surrounding the political turmoil in the U.S. forced the major equity indexes in the U.S. to retrace most of their earnings, they closed the last day of the week higher.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 141.82 points, or 0.69%, to 20,804.84, the S&P 500 rose 16.01 points, or 0.68%, to 2,381.73, but lost 0.4% on a weekly basis as Wednesday's drop of 1.8% was too big to retrace. Finally, the heavy-tech Nasdaq Composite gained 28.57 points, or 0.47%, to 6,083.70.
After a strong opening, at one point in the session, the indexes were up more than 1%. However, a recent report by Washington Post claimed that the investigators were focusing on a current White House official as a person of interest in their probe of Russian influence on the Trump's election victory, and triggered a bout of risk aversion, causing the investors to cash in their profits before they break for the weekend.
Furthermore, a separate article by the NY Times claimed that in a document summarizing the meeting that took place on May 10 between President Trump and Russian officials, Trump was quoted saying "I just fired the head of the F.B.I. He was crazy, a real nut job."
Headlines from the U.S. session:
- WH Pres. Sec Spicer: James Comey created unnecessary pressure on our ability to engage and negotiate with Russia
- US Dollar under pressure, testing 97 handle as political turmoil continues
- CME Group FedWatch's June hike probability settles above 70%
- Volatility across asset markets to become more volatile near term - Danske Bank
- US: Key economic numbers for next week - Danske Bank
- Fed: Americans' overall financial well-being in 2016 continued on a modest upward path
- NY Fed Nowcast: GDP growth stands at 2.3% for 2017:Q2
- Fed's Bullard: Would not object to June hike
- Fed's Bullard: Data, markets don't support aggressive Fed