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All three main equity indexes gapped up on Friday morning and rallied into the weekend, even as oil prices and bond yields remain elevated. There’s a new leader in charge at the most important central bank in the world. And the oldest of those main stock indexes just hit another new high.
At the closing bell, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 0.6% at 50,579, a fresh all-time closing high. The Dow was up 2.1% for the week.
The broad-based S&P 500 rose 0.4% to 7,473, ending the week with a gain of 0.9%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite added 0.2% to 26,343, rising 0.5% vs last Friday.
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The front-month West Texas Intermediate crude futures contract settled at $96.93 per barrel, down 0.02% for the day and 8.1.% for the week.
The yield on the 2-year Treasury, seen by investors, traders and speculators as an indicator of short-term policy direction for the Fed, closed the week at 4.123% vs 4.087% on Thursday and 4.084% last Friday.
Kevin Warsh is officially the Fed chair
Kevin Warsh was sworn in as Fed chair during a ceremony at the White House on Friday, with President Donald Trump watching his nominee take the oath of office with major questions about inflation and the trajectory of the federal funds rate front of mind for markets.
It’s the first time a president has observed the swearing in of a Fed chair since Ronald Reagan and Alan Greenspan in 1987.
“President Trump chose Kevin Warsh to run the Federal Reserve to secure the lower interest rates he has demanded for the past year,” Nick Timiraos of The Wall Street Journal observes. “A suddenly pressing question is whether Warsh would have political cover to do the opposite and raise them.”
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Merck leads the Dow
Merck (MRK, +5.6%) was the top-performing Dow Jones stock on Friday after its China-based partner Kelun-Biotech announced positive Phase III trial results for a new cancer drug.
A combination of Kelun-Biotech’s sacituzumab tirumotecan, or sac-TMT, and Merck’s Keytruda reduced the risk of tumor progression by 65% in lung cancer patients.
CEO Robert Davis emphasized Merck’s efforts to build a “patent wall” during the drugmaker’s first-quarter conference call, as Keytruda nears the end of its exclusivity period in 2028. That includes new indications as well as new combinations.
The healthcare stock sagged after reaching its 52-week high of $125.14 on February 25, but stabilized after management reported a narrower-than-expected loss and raised full-year guidance on April 30.
Astera Labs leads the chips
From its most recent all-time closing high on May 11 through May 21, the iShares Semiconductor ETF (SOXX, +2.4%) was down 1.5%. Nvidia (NVDA, -1.9%), the biggest stock in the world by market cap, was basically flat.
But Astera Labs (ALAB, +3.0%) was up 43.6%. The tech stock was up 31.9% this week after Evercore ISI analyst Mark Lipacis reiterated his Outperform (Buy) rating and raised his 12-month target price for ALAB from $215 to $297.
The analyst cited recent channel checks showing AI data center capex budgets will emphasize inference infrastructure in the second half of 2026.
