Categories: U.S. Investing

S&P 500 Posts Seventh Straight Weekly Gain as Drug Makers Rally

S&P 500 Posts Seventh Straight Weekly Gain as Drug Makers Rally (Bloomberg)

U.S. stocks rose, capping a seventh week of gains for the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index, after an increase in the pace of hiring and pharmaceutical company shares rose due to favorable decisions by European regulators. This week, the Dow advanced 0.6 percent to finish with its seventh straight weekly gain, the longest streak since January 2011. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 percent during the past five days. Today, the S&P 500 climbed 0.5 percent to a record 1,804.76 at 4 p.m. in New York. The advance pushed the U.S. equity benchmark to a 27 percent gain for the year, poised to be the biggest annual jump since 1998. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) rose 54.78 points, or 0.3 percent, to 16,064.77. About 5.6 billion shares changed hands in the U.S., 8 percent below the three-month average. Specifically, health-care stocks in the S&P 500 collectively rose 1.2 percent, led by Biogen Idec Inc. and Gilead Sciences Inc. Time Warner Cable Inc. soared 10 percent on renewed takeover speculation, while United Continental Holdings Inc. (UAL) climbed 3.9 percent after billionaire David Tepper said his “big play in the market” is airlines. However, International Business Machines Corp. slid 1.5 percent after billionaire Stan Druckenmiller said he is shorting the shares. “I don’t see any reason why the market shouldn’t go up,” said Karyn Cavanaugh, a vice president and market strategist at ING U.S. Investment Management in New York. “There’s not really any bad news.

Paul Dykewicz

Paul Dykewicz is the editor of StockInvestor.com and the editorial director of Eagle Financial Publications in Washington, D.C. He writes and edits for the website, as well as edits investment newsletters, time-sensitive trading alerts and other reports published by Eagle. He also is an accomplished, award-winning journalist who has written for Dow Jones, USA Today and other publications, as well as served as business editor of a daily newspaper in Baltimore. In addition, Paul is the author of the inspirational book, "Holy Smokes! Golden Guidance from Notre Dame's Championship Chaplain." He received his MBA in finance from Johns Hopkins University, where he was a two-time president of the school's Finance Club. In addition, Paul has a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan and a master's degree in journalism from Michigan State University. Outside of work, Paul volunteers with a faith-based organization to assist the poor in Southeast Washington, D.C., to learn personal finance skills to lift themselves out of debt.

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