Stocks gain ground and put Wall Street on a path for all-time highs

Stocks rose in afternoon trading Friday and put Wall Street on track to close a strong week at an all-time high The S P rose and is set to surpass its record reached in February The Nasdaq composite was up less than within striking distance of a new all-time high The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose or points to as of p m Eastern A record for the S P would mark a sharp turnaround from several months ago when the key measure of Wall Street s fitness fell nearly from the February high on fears that President Donald Trump s contract protocol could harm the financial system The gains on Friday were broad with nearly every sector within the S P rising Nike soared for the biggest gain on the domain despite warning of a steep hit from tariffs The broader territory has seemingly shaken off fears about the Israel-Iran war disrupting the global supply of crude oil and sending prices higher A ceasefire between the two nations is still in place The price of crude oil in the U S is mostly unchanged on Friday Prices have fallen back to pre-conflict levels Investors are also monitoring prospective progress on transaction conflicts between the U S and the world specifically with China The U S and China have signed a business deal that will make it easier for American firms to obtain magnets and rare earth minerals from China that are critical to manufacturing and microchip production U S Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent commented Friday China s Commerce Ministry also commented that the two sides had further approved the details of the framework for their contract talks But its declaration did not explicitly mention an agreement to ensure U S access to rare earths and instead commented it will review and approve eligible export applications for controlled items An update on inflation Friday exhibited prices ticked higher in May though the rate mostly matched economists projections Inflation remains a big concern for businesses and consumers Trump s on-again-off-again tariff procedures has made it complicated for companies to make forecasts It has also put more pressure on consumers worried about already stubborn inflation A long list of businesses from carmakers to retailers have warned that higher import taxes will likely hurt their revenues and profits The U S has baseline tariffs on all imported goods along with higher rates for Chinese goods and other import taxes on steel and autos The business activity and consumers have remained somewhat resilient under those tariffs though analysts and economists expect to see the impact grow as import taxes continue to work their way through businesses to consumers While we also would have expected to already to be seeing a bit more pass through into the inflation statistics we still expect these impacts to show up in a more meaningful way in the next insufficient months commented Greg Wilensky head of U S fixed income and portfolio manager at Janus Henderson The threat of more severe tariffs continues to hang over the market system The current pause on a round of retaliatory tariffs against a long list of nations is set to expire in July Failure to negotiate deals or further postpone the tariffs could once again rattle investors and consumers The Federal Reserve is monitoring the tariff situation with a big focus on inflation The rate of inflation has been stubbornly sitting just above the central bank s target of In a description Friday its preferred gauge the personal consumption expenditures index rose to in May That s up from the previous month The Fed cut interest rates twice in late following a historic series of rate hikes to cool inflation The PCE was as high as in while the more commonly used consumer price index hit The Fed hasn t cut rate cuts so far in over worries that tariffs could reignite inflation and hamper the financial market Economists still expect at least two rate cuts before the end of the year Bond yields held relatively steady The yield on the -year Treasury rose to from late Thursday The two-year Treasury yield which more closely tracks expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do edged up to from late Thursday Stocks in Europe were mostly higher while stocks in Asia finished mixed