Stocks are grinding higher Friday, the tech-heavy Nasdaq and SPX emini making new record highs (7424.25 and 26195.90 respectively), while the DJIA remains well off mid-February record high of 50,512.79.
IT sector shares led advances by midday: Akamai Technologies up +20.53% on the day, driven by AI and cloud security demand outlook, not to mention several dealer upgrades.
Micron Technology +13.45% on AI driven infrastructure buildout after delivering the worlds largest SSD at 245 terabytes this week. Knock-on support for memory stocks saw Sandisk Corp +13.34%, Gen Digital +10.95% and QUALCOMM +9.63%.
On the flipside, Health Care and Financial sector shares led declines: Mettler-Toledo International -12.5%, Zoetis -5.5% and Viatris -3.75% by midday. Banks weighed on the financials sector with the following -1.5-3.5%: Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Regions Financial and JPMorgan Chase.
MNI: BAKER HUGHES US RIG COUNT 548; OIL RIGS 410; GAS RIGS 129
May-08 17:00
MNI: BAKER HUGHES US RIG COUNT 548; OIL RIGS 410; GAS RIGS 129