DJI: Dow Jones Runs Ahead of Index Pack with 470-Point Gain. Big Tech Slumps.

Blue-chip index was playing catch up after pumping moderate gains for most of the quarter.

Key Points:

• Dow Jones leads stock rally.
• S&P 500 closes at new record.
• Equity markets break on Friday.
• The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJI just logged its best percentage gain of the year, rising 1.2%, or 477 points. The heavyweight 30-stock index was buoyed higher by real-economy stocks such as pharma giant Merck & Company MRK, up 5% and Wall Street mainstay Goldman Sachs GS, up 2.2% on the day.
• Big Tech didn’t get to shine this time. The bigshot players in AI and other buzzy sectors dragged behind with chip juggernaut Nvidia NVDA closing lower by 2.5%. Meme stocks didn’t get love either. The new entrant to public markets—Reddit RDDT—declined 11% and GameStop GME erased 15% after the beloved videogame retailer posted a big earnings miss.
• Still, the S&P 500 snatched yet another victory, clocking out at a fresh all-time high. The broad-based index is now one session away from securing its best first-quarter performance since 2019, boasting gains of 10% for the first three months of 2024. Friday is a public holiday, making today the final trading session for the quarter.