Wall Street stocks were once again hovering near record levels to finish another winning week, the Associated Press reports.
The S&P ticked down 0.1% Friday from its all-time high set Thursday, but the index is still on track for its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average, up 0.2%, was near its December record.
The Nasdaq, contending with losses for tech stocks, dipped 0.2%.
Markets set records this week on expectations that the Federal Reserve will cut its key interest rate at its September meeting. While a disappointing report on inflation at the wholesale level drove traders to pare back bets for coming cuts to interest rates, they’re still overwhelmingly expecting them.
UnitedHealth Group shot up 11.4% after Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway said it bought nearly 5 million shares of the insurer during the spring, valued at $1.57 billion.
Berkshire Hathaway’s own stock ticked up 0.1%.
Applied Materials plunged 11.7% despite reporting better results for the latest quarter than analysts expected.
Sandisk fell 3.7% even though it reported a profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts’ expectations.
In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury was holding at 4.29%, unchanged from late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield eased to 3.72% from 3.74%.
