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US stocks rose on Friday, ending a five-day losing streak.
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Consumer discretionary and technology sectors led gains, signaling a shift to risk on.
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Positive ISM manufacturing data and political stability with the re-election of Mike Johnson helped push stocks higher.
US stocks jumped on Friday, ending a five-day losing streak for the S&P 500, Dow Jonesa Nasdaq 100.
Risk stocks in the consumer discretionary and technology sectors led the market higher.
Stocks hit session highs around the same time that Congressman Mike Johnson was re-elected Speaker of the House, indicating that infighting within the Republican Party may be tamer than in previous months.
A blog post from Microsoft president Brad Smith, who said the company expects to spend $80 billion on data centers in 2025 amid an ongoing AI frenzy, also helped boost tech stocks on Friday.
“Not since the invention of electricity has the United States had the opportunity it has today to harness new technology to revitalize the nation's economy,” said Smith.
Nuclear stocks increased on a burst of analyst enthusiasm for the sector related to demand from AI data centers. Shares of Constellation Energy Group and Vistra Corp rose. 4% and 8.5%, respectively. Constellation on Thursday announced a $1 billion deal to provide power to more than a dozen government agencies.
Chip titan Nvidia jumped more than 4% in the session.
Investors were encouraged by December's ISM Manufacturing data, which came in at 49.3%, representing a nine-month high. That was well above economist estimates of 48.0%, and higher than November's reading of 48.4%.
Looking ahead to next week, investors will focus on several economic updates, including jobless claims, preliminary consumer sentiment, and the US employment report for December.
Here's where US indices stood at the close at 4:00 pm on Friday:
Here's what else happened today: