S&P 500 posts sixth straight weekly gain

U.S. stocks just pulled off something that matters more than a flashy one-day jump. The S&P 500 closed at another record on Friday, May 8, and locked in its sixth straight weekly gain. That tells you this rally is not just a meme-stock burst or a one-earnings-call sugar high. It has breadth, it has momentum, and for now it has a story investors are willing to believe. ### What actually happened? The S&P 500 rose 0.84% Friday to 7,398.93. The Nasdaq jumped 1.71% to 26,247.08. Both closed at all-time highs, and both stretched their winning streaks to six straight weeks — the longest run since 2024. Even the Dow, which lagged badly, still managed a small gain on the day and a second straight positive week. ### Why were stocks still climbing? (cnbc.com) Two things kept feeding the move. First, earnings have been better than expected. Second, the labor market still looks sturdy enough to support spending and profits. Investors basically decided that strong companies plus a not-broken economy mattered more than the usual list of worries — oil, geopolitics, and inflation chatter. (cnbc.com) ### How strong has earnings season been? Pretty strong — and not just at the headline level. FactSet’s April 24 read showed 84% of reporting S&P 500 companies beating EPS estimates, above both the 5-year and 10-year averages. The blended earnings growth rate for Q1 had climbed to 15.1%, up from 13.0% a week earlier, which put the index on track for a sixth straight quarter of double-digit year-over-year earnings growth. That is real fuel for a market sitting at records. (cnbc.com) ### Why does AI keep showing up in this story? Because a lot of the biggest winners are tied directly to AI spending. Nvidia rose again on Friday, while Micron and Sandisk surged more than 15% as traders leaned into demand from AI data-center buildouts. The semiconductor index has been on a tear, and tech was the best-performing S&P sector that day with a 2.7% jump. So yes, the rally is broad enough to count — but the leadership is still very concentrated in AI-linked names. (insight.factset.com) ### What did the jobs report change? It gave the market permission to keep going. April nonfarm payrolls rose by 115,000, well above the 55,000 estimate cited by CNBC, and the unemployment rate held at 4.3%. That is not a booming labor market. But it is resilient enough to calm fears of a sudden economic crack. In market terms, it was a “not too cold” number. (money.usnews.com) ### So where’s the risk? The catch is inflation. Strong earnings and okay jobs are great, but they also make it easier for the Federal Reserve to sit tight. Traders had already been leaning toward no rate cuts this year, and hotter inflation data would reinforce that. On May 12, the April CPI release showed prices up 0.6% for the month and 3.8% over 12 months — exactly the kind of print that can make investors rethink how far this rally should run. (cnbc.com) ### Why hasn’t oil derailed this yet? Because markets have treated the Middle East shock as a risk, not a thesis-breaker. Oil moved higher as fighting between U.S. and Iranian forces raised fears around the Strait of Hormuz, but investors kept looking through it as long as earnings and growth held up. That works until it doesn’t. If energy prices stay elevated, they can leak into inflation and hit the exact weak spot this rally is trying to ignore. (money.usnews.com) ### Bottom line The market’s message is simple. Investors think corporate America is still delivering, the economy is still standing, and AI spending is still powerful enough to pull indexes higher. But once stocks are at records after six straight winning weeks, the bar gets tougher. From here, inflation matters more than hope. (cnbc.com)