The Dow hit record highs for a fifth day in a row, peaking at 32,793 before pulling back slightly to settle at 32,778, up 1.0 percent on the day. It was the Dow’s biggest weekly gain since the first week of November 2020, following the US presidential election.
The S&P500, which groups the top 500 US stocks, hit record highs for a second day in a row, reaching 3,945. The S&P closed at 3,944, up 0.1 percent on the day.
Both the Dow and S&P500 rallied as investors celebrated President Joe Biden’s signing into law on Thursday the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 COVID-19 relief bill.
The technology-laden Nasdaq Composite index - which had tumbled the past two weeks on concerns about overvaluation in stocks such as Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Google - entered a new phase of weakness on Friday, losing 0.6 percent to settle at 13,320.
Despite the slide on the day, Nasdaq gained 3.1 percent on the week, helped by a strong performance on Tuesday and Thursday. The weekly advance was also the index’s largest since the end of January.