All three major benchmarks settled higher on the Friday before Memorial Day weekend
Stocks extended their rallies into the long weekend, with Wall Street brushing off hot inflation data for April as optimism over a U.S. debt ceiling deal grew. The Dow added 328 points to snap a five-day losing streak, but still registered a weekly loss.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq scored a fifth-straight week of gains to settle at its highest level since August. The S&P 500 did the same en route to weekly and daily wins. Elsewhere, the Cboe Volatility Index (VIX) clocked its best week since May 5.
Continue reading for more on today's market, including:
- How does a trader avoid options assignment?
- Debt ceiling talks likely to dominate coming week.
- Plus, retail stock enjoying post-earnings surge; put traders betting on BIG; and more of this weeks' top headlines.
Things to Know Today
- JPMorgan Chase (JPM) reportedly cut roughly 500 positions this week among its technology and operations groups, but is hiring for 13,000 job openings. (CNBC)
- Ford Motor (F) stock surged after the car maker inked a deal with Tesla (TSLA) to allow Ford electric vehicle (EV) owners use Tesla charging stations. (MarketWatch)
- A surprise profit boosted this apparel stock.
- Why put traders blasted Big Lots stock.
- Unpacking this week's biggest retail earnings reports.
Gold Prices Fall for 3rd Straight Week
Oil price settled higher on Friday to score a 1% weekly gain. Though the future of crude output is unclear, knowledge the U.S. government often buys crude below $70 boosted the commodity, especially amid recent efforts to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. July-dated crude added 84 cents, or 1.2%, to close at $72.67 per barrel.
Gold prices also moved higher for the day, but marked a third-straight week in the red with a 1.4% dip. Evidence of persistently high inflation boosted the safe-haven asset today. For the session, June-dated gold rose 60 cents, or about 0.1%, to close at $1,943.70 an ounce.