US stocks were mixed on Friday while the S&P 500 and Dow reached record highs ahead of Monday’s major sector reshuffle, capping a week that largely shrugged off trade worries.
Trading volume was expected to spike in anticipation of the S&P 500 sector change, when telecom will be folded into a new sector called communications services, along with Amazon, Facebook and Walt Disney, reports Reuters.
The S&P 500 and the Dow were up, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq losing ground.
All three were on track to post their second consecutive weekly gains, with the blue-chip Dow on its way to its best weekly percentage gain in over two months.
Boeing Co, United States’ biggest exporter to China, led trade-sensitive industrials higher. The sector headed up gains by the S&P 500 and the Dow.
Yields on long-dated US Treasuries edged down on Brexit anxieties even as the US Federal Reserve is expected to hike key interest rates next week. Financial stocks headed lower, ending their recent rally.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 78.46 points, or 0.29 per cent, to 26,735.44, the S&P 500 gained 3.04 points, or 0.10 per cent, to 2,933.79.
The Nasdaq Composite dropped 18.66 points, or 0.23 per cent, to 8,009.58.
Telecoms rose 1.4 per cent on its last trading day.
The advance was led by AT&T Inc, which rose 1.7 per cent following a UBS upgrade to “buy.”
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.29-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.20-to-1 ratio favoured decliners.
The S&P 500 posted 53 new 52-week highs and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 49 new highs and 31 new lows.
