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The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to an all-time high and closed out its fifth straight week of gains. This is his longest streak since 2024.
A person walks past an electronic stock board displaying Japan’s Nikkei stock index at a stock company Thursday, April 30, 2026, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko) AP
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market set more records on Friday after Apple, Estée Lauder and others joined the list of companies with bigger profits at the start of the year than analysts expected. Lower oil prices also helped stabilize stock markets around the world that were still open on the Labor Day holiday.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% to an all-time high and closed out its fifth straight week of gains. This is the longest such streak since 2024. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152 points, or 0.3%, and the Nasdaq Composite added 0.9% to its own record.
Apple led the way after the iPhone seller reported stronger earnings and revenue in the latest quarter than analysts expected. Considered one of the largest stocks on Wall Street by overall volume, Apple’s 3.3% rise was the strongest lift for the S&P 500 ever.
Stock prices generally follow the long-term path of corporate earnings, and US companies have beaten expectations for earnings in the first three months of 2026. This is even as the war with Iran and rising oil prices have dented the confidence of many US households.
Just over a quarter of companies in the S&P 500 have already reported, and 84% of them beat analyst estimates, according to FactSet. The index is on track to achieve earnings growth of approximately 15% from the previous year.
Estee Lauder rose 3.4% after it reported better-than-expected earnings, thanks in part to strength in China, and raised some of its upcoming financial forecasts. SanDisk shares jumped 8.3% after the computer storage maker beat analysts’ profit expectations, thanks in part to voracious demand from data centers.
Colgate-Palmolive stock added 2.2% after also posting bigger-than-expected results, although CEO Noel Wallace said he expects “continued volatile macroeconomic conditions and slower category growth in 2026.”
The main uncertainty for the global economy is where oil prices are heading due to the Iran war. Oil prices rose at the beginning of this week due to fears that the war will keep the Strait of Hormuz closed for a long time. This, in turn, will keep oil tankers idle in the Persian Gulf instead of delivering crude oil to customers around the world.
But such moves were rapidly declining throughout the war, as hopes for reopening the strait rose and fell. On Friday, the price of a barrel of Brent crude, the international standard, fell by 2% to settle at $108.17. The price of Brent crude was selling for just over $70 per barrel before the war began.
This rise since the end of February helped the two largest American oil companies achieve stronger profits for the fourth quarter than analysts expected. However, share prices fell for both Exxon Mobil by 1% and Chevron by 1.4%, with oil prices falling on Friday and both of them announcing a decline in net income from the previous year.
In total, the S&P 500 rose 21.11 points to 7,230.12. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 152.87 to 49,499.27, and the Nasdaq Composite rose 222.13 to 25,114.44.
The decline in oil prices helped decline Treasury yields in the bond market. So did a report in the morning that said US manufacturing growth was slightly weaker last month than economists had expected.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note fell to 4.38% from 4.40% late Thursday. Such declines can make mortgages and other loans to US households and businesses cheaper, and they also tend to push up the prices of stocks and all other types of investments.
Many stock markets around the world are closed for Labor Day. Among the indices still trading, the Nikkei 225 in Tokyo rose 0.4%, and the FTSE 100 in London fell 0.1%.
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AP Business writers Matt Ott and Ellen Kurtenbach contributed to this report.