Jennifer Sor
5 min read
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The S&P 500 closed at a record high on Friday.
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The benchmark index rose during the week to hit its highest level since February
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The latest all-time high has been aided by news of trade deals and rising rate-cut bets.
The S&P 500 hit a fresh record closing high for the first time in four months on Friday.
After narrowly missing the intraday and closing records in Thursday's session, the benchmark index climbed as high as 6,187.68, its highest level since February.
Here's where major indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET closing bell on Friday:
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S&P 500: 6,173.06, up 0.52%
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Dow Jones Industrial Average: 43,818.50, up 1% (+431.66 points)
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Nasdaq composite: 20,273.46, up 0.52%
Here are the four things that inspired the latest rally to record highs.
The US and China finalized a framework agreement that involves China approving exports for rare earth minerals, while the US dials back some of its restrictions on high-tech exports to China.
President Donald Trump said both nations had signed the deal at an event in the White House on Thursday. China's Commerce Ministry confirmed the framework agreement and its details in a statement Friday morning.
The deal is a confidence boost for investors, who have been eyeing US-China trade relations anxiously since Trump threatened to impose as much as a 145% tariff on Chinese goods in April.
Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick also said the US had 10 trade agreements with other countries on the way, with plans to finalize those deals within the next few weeks.
"We're going to do top 10 deals, put them in the right category, and then these other countries will fit behind," Lutnick told Bloomberg.
Markets breathed a sigh of relief this week after President Donald Trump announced a truce between Israel and Iran, alleviating concerns that conflict in the Middle East could spill over into the region and lead to a disruption of oil flows that could hobble the world economy.
Conflict between the two nations continued after Trump announced his cease-fire. But the announcement has been enough to quell investors' worst fears — particularly fears of an oil supply disruption, which briefly spiked the price of crude and fanned worries about hotter inflation.
Oil prices are down from their highs earlier this month. Brent crude, the international benchmark, traded around $67 a barrel on Friday, down 14% from its peak this month.
West Texas Intermediate crude traded close to $65 a barrel on Friday, down 12% from its peak in the heat of the Israel-Iran conflict.
