S&P 500 Closes the 4th Bullish Month in A Row Above 5,100

Stock markets have been on a strong bullish run since November, making new record highs continually. S&P 500 pushed above 5,000 points early this month, and this week it closed above 5,100. This was the best February in a decade for this stock index and the upside momentum doesn’t seem to stop.

S&P 500 Daily Chart – The 20 SMA Was Providing Support Earlier

The equity markets had a strong bullish day on Thursday as US PCE inflation slowed and on Friday the the bullish momentum picked up after another round of soft data from the US. This week’s economic data from the US points to a potential rate cut soon. The S&P 500 surged 41 points to a record high of 5137, while the Nasdaq Composite surpassed its 2021 high, climbing around 1%. The S&P 500 gained 0.8% overall yesterday.

The surge started last week after Nvidia, so the bullish momentum was particularly notable in companies related to artificial intelligence (AI), with chipmakers like Broadcom, Micron, and AMD making the most profit in the S&P 500 index, with the last company’s market capitalization surpassing $300 billion on Thursday and rose further on Friday. Nvidia (NVDA) also saw a notable increase of more than 3%.

However, there were some caveats with certain companies, such as Apple, whose shares fell 1% and Wynn Resorts plummeted 4%, indicating probable weakness in consumer-related sectors. However, it’s likely that the buying activity on Friday was fueled in part by new investments entering the market at the beginning of the month, which has historically been a strong period during the spring for the markets.

S&P 500 Live Chart