U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday afternoon as investors held out hope for a peace deal between Iran and the United States and as SpaceX shares surged in their debut, making it Wall Street’s biggest public listing in history. The TSX also rose, and even modestly outperformed Wall Street.
The United States and Iran signalled that an agreement to end their war was close, with a senior U.S. administration official saying a draft proposal was in place that was liked by both sides. U.S. President Donald Trump has said several times since mid-March that a deal with Iran to end the war was close.
Market participants were glued to shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. Its shares closed up 19.2% at US$160.95, well above the IPO price of $135 apiece. Its market capitalization was last at $2.1 trillion.
Shares of other space stocks, which soared in the lead-up to the debut, eased on Friday. Rocket Lab’s stock fell 10.8%, while Intuitive Machines was down 13.1% and Planet Labs declined 8.8%.
The reported progress in peace talks helped to lift sentiment, said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“There’s still hope for a peace deal. Trump called off the attacks ... Third parties are confirming a peace deal is happening.”
That puts pressure on oil prices and reduces worries about higher inflation and interest rates, he said.
Investors were also looking ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting, which will be the first under the leadership of Kevin Warsh. Traders will be looking for any signs of whether a rate hike is likely as fed funds futures traders price in a 55% chance of an increase by December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 353.51 points, or 0.70%, to 51,202.26, the S&P 500 gained 37.16 points, or 0.50%, to 7,431.46 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 79.18 points, or 0.31%, to 25,888.84.
The small-cap Russell 2000 nabbed a record closing high.
Stocks also ended higher for the week, with each of the three major indexes up roughly 7% for the period. But U.S. equity funds saw their first weekly outflow in three weeks, and earlier this week the technology index confirmed a correction. Analysts believe some of the recent weakness could be due to traders trimming holdings ahead of SpaceX’s debut.
SpaceX is now ranked among the biggest publicly listed U.S. companies.
Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he was surprised by the lack of volatility in SpaceX so far, given the hype around the IPO.
IPOs of AI companies OpenAI and Anthropic are also highly anticipated later in the year. SpaceX, which also includes Starlink and xAI, has already defied some Wall Street conventions.
Some analysts have voiced caution, however, over the fundamentals of the company, which posted more than $4 billion in annual losses last year.
“Sentiment could easily turn sour because SpaceX is truly overvalued at this level,” Dollarhide said.
Shares of Tesla, another Musk company that trades at a premium to its earnings, ended 1.8% higher. On the flip side, Adobe slid 6.8% after the exit of CFO Dan Durn.
The Toronto Stock Exchange’s S&P/TSX composite index ended up 266.39 points, or 0.77%, at 34,937.85 points, marking the highest closing level since the index posted a record high on June 4. For the week, the index was up 1.5%.
The materials group, which includes metal mining shares, was up 3.1%.
Heavily weighted financials added 0.9% and consumer discretionary ended 0.7% higher.
Shares of Apotex Health were up 5.4%, adding to gains since the generic drugmaker made its market debut on Wednesday in the TSX’s largest IPO in five years.
Four of the 10 major sectors ended lower, including technology, which lost 1% and energy
Energy was down 0.5% as the price of oil settled 3.2% lower at US$84.88 a barrel.
Reuters, Globe staff