Bulls push the S&P 500 back near records — here’s what drove the market last week

Livestream Menu Make Itselect USAINTLLivestream Search quotes, news & videos Livestream Watchlist SIGN INCreate free account Markets Business Investing Tech Politics Video Watchlist Investing Club PROLivestream Menu

Bulls push the S&P 500 back near records — here’s what drove the market last week Published Sat, May 23 20261:14 PM EDTUpdated 53 Min Ago Morgan Chittum@morgan_chittum Stock market bulls wrestled back control last week after a brief respite, putting the S & P 500 back on the cusp of another record high. The index has now advanced for eight straight weeks since its Iran wartime bottom on March 30, its longest winning streak since late 2023, when it strung together nine in a row. With a modest gain Friday, the S & P 500 is now less than 0.4% below its May 14 record close of 7,501. It was a big shift from the start of the week, when the good times seemed in jeopardy thanks to the old foes of higher oil prices and bond yields. Oil again traded well above $100 a barrel, and the 30-year Treasury yield on Tuesday reached its highest level since 2007 . Stocks unsurprisingly didn't like that. The S & P 500 ended Tuesday riding a three-session skid dating back to May 15, a losing streak not seen since March 26, 27, and 30. Just like in the early days of the Iran war, stocks were taking their cues again from the oil and bond markets. Enthusiasm around artificial intelligence wasn't enough to break through. .SPX 3M mountain S & P 500 3 months The market turned a corner on Wednesday. Oil prices and bond yields retreated, resulting in a positive session for the S & P 500. It kicked off the stock market's ascent – just like the rally on March 31. Investors were optimistic after President Donald Trump said the U.S. was in the "final stages" of peace talks with Iran. The S & P 500 didn't stop there and continued its run into Thursday and Friday. It wasn't just hopes of a resolution that drove last week's action. Nvidia, the center of the AI trade, reported a strong quarter Wednesday night — but not strong enough to propel its own stock higher. Also on Wednesday, SpaceX filed for its initial public offering, which is expected to be the largest in history. The remarkable comeback in cybersecurity stocks, including Club name CrowdStrike , continued. Overall, the S & P 500 jumped 0.9% over the five-day stretch. The tech-heavy Nasdaq and Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.5% and 2.1%, respectively. The blue-chip Dow ended the week at a record high. Here's a closer look at the forces that drove last week's action. Nvidia's quarter Nvidia posted another blockbuster quarter late Wednesday. The company delivered a beat-and-raise well above analyst forecasts, and CEO Jensen Huang said that "demand has gone parabolic." It just reinforced our view that Nvidia is a must-own name during the AI race, and we raised our price target to $260 per share from $230. Still, the stock fell 2.6% in the session that followed and another 0.5% on Friday. It's a frustrating reaction, given shares are incredibly cheap versus peers, and it has plenty of avenues for more growth. The stock's post-earnings decline isn't that surprising to us — it's become a pattern in recent quarters, no matter how good the numbers look. At least shares of fellow Club name Arm jumped on the release. Nvidia highlighted strong demand for its new Arm-based Vera CPUs (central processing units). CFO Colette Kress said Nvidia has visibility to nearly $20 billion in total CPU revenue this year. That's good news for Arm because the company receives royalty payments. Arm shares jumped over 16% on Nvidia earnings, and gained 46% for the week. It was our top performer. But the stock has been running for some time now – up roughly 81% since we started a position in April. The parabolic move is why we sold some on Monday and will likely trim some again next week, as Director of Portfolio Analysis Jeff Marks wrote in Friday's Homestretch . Goldman's deal trifecta Nvidia earnings weren't the only driver of a Club stock's weekly gains. SpaceX filed for its highly anticipated initial public offering (IPO) on Wednesday, sending shares of Goldman Sachs higher as the company got a lead role on the deal. Goldman was listed as the highly coveted "lead left" position on SpaceX's prospectus. By spearheading some of the most crucial parts of the stock's debut, the investment bank will likely take home the biggest share of fees. It should be especially lucrative for Goldman as SpaceX is expected to be the biggest IPO in history. The offering of Elon Musk's rocket company, valued at $1.25 trillion, could raise $75 billion or more. That would be more than triple the size of the biggest U.S. offering to date: Alibaba 's $25 billion IPO in 2014. Banks on Alibaba's IPO were paid out more than $300 million in underwriting commissions at the time. That's roughly 1.2% of the e-commerce giant's total deal. Applying the same math to SpaceX, participating banks could bring in over $900 million. "This is a huge win f