Traders work on the floor at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, U.S., July 25, 2025.
Jeenah Moon | Reuters
The S&P 500 rose on Friday as it closes out a winning week following solid earnings results and the latest trade developments.
The S&P 500 jumped 0.5%, and the Nasdaq Composite traded up 0.4%, with both indexes hitting new all-time intraday highs during the session. The Dow Jones Industrial Average also climbed 201 points, or 0.5%.
All three major averages are on pace to finish the week with gains. The 30-stock Dow is tracking for a 1.3% advance, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq and broad market S&P 500 are looking at a 1.2% and 1.5% increase, respectively, on the week.
Thursday marked the S&P 500’s 13th record close of 2025, four of which were recorded this week as the index finished above 6,300 for the first time on Monday. The Nasdaq, meanwhile, has seen three record closes this week, breaking the 21,000 threshold on Wednesday.
The journey to all-time highs over this past week has been supported by a strong earnings season so far, including Alphabet’s better-than-expected earnings report. Verizon shares also jumped after the telecommunications company’s results surpassed expectations. Week to date, Alphabet is up 4% and Verizon is up 5%.
More than 82% of the 169 S&P 500 companies that have reported to date have beaten Wall Street’s expectations, per FactSet data.
“The bull market lives on, supported largely by favorable fundamentals,” Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management, told CNBC. “Inflation is stable, interest rates are range-bound and earnings are trending higher, and that presents a favorable backward drop for stocks to trend higher. We still look for a risk-on bias to be intact as we move through this earnings season.”
On top of earnings, recent deals between the U.S. and its trading partners have helped push the market to new heights. Earlier this week, President Donald Trump announced a “massive” trade agreement with Japan, which includes 15% “reciprocal” tariffs. The president also said this week that the U.S. and Indonesia have settled on the framework of a trade agreement.
Trump said Friday that he expects more deals to be done before next week’s Aug. 1 tariff deadline. An agreement between the U.S. and the European Union could be one of those, as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen posted on X later Friday that she and Trump have agreed to meet in Scotland on Sunday to discuss trade.
“Tariffs remain an item of uncertainty, and commentary from companies still reflects this ongoing uncertainty,” Sandven continued. “You look at the ongoing tariff commentary, you look at geopolitical challenges, whether it be with Russia-Ukraine, Israel-Iran and the like. Through all that, the equity market has trended higher. In our view, it gets back to the strong fundamentals, namely inflation appears to be under control.”
Investors are gearing up for the busiest week of earnings season next week, as more than 150 S&P 500 companies are due to post their quarterly results. That includes names in the “Magnificent Seven,” such as Meta Platforms and Apple.
Next week is also when the Federal Reserve is scheduled to meet once again. Policymakers are widely expected to keep interest rates at their current target range of 4.25% to 4.5%.
