Stocks Hit Record Highs, Apple Up 5%
Although there's still no stimulus deal -- something lawmakers had been trying to accomplish in July -- Wall Street seems more concerned about riding the remarkable momentum in markets since their March lows.
There was some good news Friday: Existing home sales rose nearly 25% in July from June levels, the fastest increase since 2006. U.S. manufacturing and services activities also each hit their highest marks in more than a year.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 190 points, or 0.7%, to finish at 27,930. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both finished at record closing highs.
Apple keeps ripping. Apple (ticker: AAPL), which just hit a $2 trillion valuation, added another 5% on Friday, flirting with 52-week highs and hovering around the $500 per share level. Along with Tesla ( TSLA), Apple is rallying in the run-up to a stock split planned in mere days. Apple is due to split 4-for-1 after close of business on Aug. 28.
The iPhone maker also finally responded to Fortnite developer Epic Games on Friday, saying Epic was seeking special treatment in its attempts to subvert the 30% cut of in-app purchases that Apple takes. At the core of the controversy is whether Apple's operation of the App Store is anti-competitive.
Nvidia finishes on a strong note. High-performance chipmaker Nvidia ( NVDA) finished the week with a 4.5% one-day gains, second only to Apple's 5.2% gain in the S&P 500 on Friday. Nvidia is fresh off a blowout earnings report that saw the company beat both top and bottom-line expectations.
The company, known for its elite gaming chips, is now flexing its muscles in the data center as well, seeing data center revenues surpass gaming for the first time ever last quarter.
Shares are up more than 115% year to date, and investors have high expectations for future growth; shares trade for around 90 times trailing earnings and about 60 times forward earnings.
