Shares rose on Friday as investors digested a spat between the two biggest U.S. automakers and braced for the next rate hike by the Federal Reserve.
The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 0.12%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added 0.16% and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) added 0.13%, or 44 points.
The S&P 500 is at its highest level since August 2022, while the Nasdaq is up for seven weeks.
The S&P 500 ended Thursday’s trading session up more than 20% from its October 2022 low, officially marking the start of a bull market. The stock rally starting in 2023 comes as strong economic data continue to outweigh lingering recession fears.
“I believe the worst is behind us,” BMO Capital Markets chief investment strategist Brian Belsky, who recently raised his S&P year-end price target to 4,550 from 4,300, told Yahoo Finance Live. “The Fed will probably raise one more interest rate between now and the end of the year, and that’s OK, but I think most of that has already been priced into the market.”
Shares of Tesla ( TSLA ) and General Motors ( GM ) were both trading higher in the market on Thursday after GM announced it would partner with Tesla to use the electric vehicle maker’s supercharger network. The announcement comes two weeks after Ford ( F ) announced a similar partnership with Tesla to enable access for Ford vehicles to Tesla’s charging network.
“This collaboration is an important part of our strategy and an important next step in rapidly expanding access to fast chargers for our customers,” GM CEO Mary Barra said in a press release.
Tesla shares rose 4% on the news, extending an 11-day rally. Tesla stock’s recent rally is tied with an all-time high for several days in a row.
Shares of Docusign ( DOCU ) turned negative as the company beat analyst estimates for both earnings and revenue per share in the latest quarter. Several Wall Street analysts reiterated their sell ratings on the stock.
“DocuSign’s out-performance on renewal timing was due to the fact that it sent only a fraction of the 1Q beat to full-year guidance and was lethargic about the state of the demand backdrop,” UBS analyst Carl Keirstedt wrote in a note to clients after the earnings release. .
Meanwhile, Netflix ( NFLX ) stock rose 2.6% on Friday New data U.S. signups for the streaming service have risen in at least four-and-a-half years since the streamer’s password-sharing crackdown began last month, analytics platform Antenna showed.
On the economic front, Friday is expected to be quiet. Markets predicting the central bank’s next move are currently pricing in a 78% chance that the Federal Reserve will pause its interest rate hike cycle at its meeting next week.
“The FOMC is likely to pause at its June meeting next week, allowing the fog to clear before considering another rate hike,” a team of Goldman Sachs economists led by John Hatzius wrote in a note to clients Thursday night.
Economists added: “The Fed’s leadership views the pause as a prudent course, as uncertainty about the lagged effects of rate hikes it has already delivered and the impact of tight bank lending increases the risk of being inadvertently overstated.”
Josh is a Yahoo Finance reporter.
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