Stocks Notch Best Week: Top 5 S&P 500, Nasdaq Performers – Applied Mat (NASDAQ:AMAT)

Wall Street ended the week on a strong note, with major indices posting their best weekly performance in years, as traders appeared confident that the escalation in the U.S.-China trade war — which led to triple-digit tariff increases on both sides — would be resolved in the near term.

Not even a shocking University of Michigan survey on consumer sentiment — revealing the most pronounced stagflation concerns in decades — nor fears of stress in the Treasury market were enough to curb the surge in dip-buying activity that emerged in the final day of the week.

The S&P 500 index, as tracked by the SPDR S&P 500 ETF Trust SPY, closed at 5,363, up 1.8% on the day and 5.7% for the week, marking its best weekly performance since October 2023.

From its lows earlier in the week, the index jumped 11% and now sits just four percentage points below the level it held prior to President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement on April 2.

The Nasdaq 100 index, tracked by the Invesco QQQ Trust QQQ, also rose 1.8% on Friday, bringing weekly gains to 7.5% — its strongest performance since November 2022.

Since Monday’s lows, tech stocks have surged 13% and are now about three percentage points below pre-tariff levels.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average, tracked by the SPDR Dow Jones Industrial Average ETF DIA, rose 1.6%, extending weekly gains to 4.9%, the best week for blue chips since October 2023.

From the week’s lows, the Dow has gained about 10%, and it currently trades nearly five percentage points below the level prior to the tariff news.

Materials were the best-performing sector on Friday, with the Materials Select Sector SPDR Fund XLB closing 3.5% higher, buoyed by strong rallies in mining stocks.

The VanEck Gold Miners ETF GDX jumped 5.7% on the day and nearly 20% for the week, reaching levels last seen in 2012, as gold prices continued to break record highs.

Tensions in the Treasury market, which had triggered concern in Washington earlier in the day as the 30-year yield hit 5% and the 10-year surpassed 4.5%, eased by the close. The 30-year yield retreated sharply to 4.85%, while the 10-year settled at 4.47%. The iShares 20+ Year Treasury Bond ETF TLT ended in the green, up 0.54%.

Oil prices rose 2.1% to $61.50 a barrel, and copper climbed 4.8%, signaling easing fears about global economic conditions.

Bitcoin BTC/USD also reflected the improved risk sentiment, rising more than 5% to $83,850.

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Photo: Sutthiphong Chandaeng via Shutterstock