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U.S. stocks climbed to record levels and closed out Friday at their session highs as Wall Street wrapped up the week with solid gains amid rising reopening optimism.
The Dow Jones Industrials ascended 299.21 points to 33,802.78
The broader index gained 31.63 points, to 4,128.80, for its third straight record.
The NASDAQ Composite soared 70.88 points to 13,900.18.
The blue-chip Dow climbed 2% this week, while the S&P 500 gained about 2.7%, posting its best week since early February. The NASDAQ rallied 3.1% over the same period as major technology names outperformed. Apple jumped more than 8% this week, while Amazon and Alphabet both gained more than 6%.
Stocks linked to the recovering economy led the gains again amid the accelerating vaccine rollout. Carnival Corp rose 2.6% after getting two upgrades on Wall Street amid pent-up demand and potential summer restart. General Electric climbed more than 1%. JPMorgan added 0.8%.
The major averages are poised to end the week higher. The Dow is up more than 1% this week. The S&P 500 has gained about 2% since Monday, while the NASDAQ has rallied 2.4%.
On the data front, the producer price index, which measures wholesale price inflation, jumped in March. The March PPI data showed a rise of 1.0%, compared with a projected increase of 0.4% from economists surveyed by Dow Jones.
Year over year, the PPI surged 4.2%, which marks the largest annual gain in more than nine years.
Prices for 10-Year Treasurys fell, raising yields to 1.64% from Thursday’s 1.62%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.
Oil prices dropped 17 cents to $59.43 U.S. a barrel.
Gold prices slumped $12.30 to $1,745.90 U.S. an ounce.
