US stocks close week on record highs, extending post-election rally

S&P 500 and the Dow had their best week in a year, while the Nasdaq had its best week in two months

A hat in support of Republican Donald Trump, after he won the US presidential election, at the New York Stock Exchange. Reuters

US stocks surged on Friday, extending gains on bets that President-elect Donald Trump, on his return to the White House, will enact an agenda in favour of lower taxes and less regulation.

The S&P 500 finished up 0.4 per cent for the day and hit its 50th record this year amid a weekly gain of 4.7 per cent. The S&P 500 also briefly topped the 6,000-mark on Friday.

A major rally in Elon Musk’s electric-vehicle maker Tesla hauled the company up into the much-coveted trillion-dollar mark. Tesla's stock surged 8 per cent on Friday and gained about 29 per cent during the week amid investor optimism that Mr Trump's return to the White House will benefit the company.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 0.6 per cent, while the tech-focused Nasdaq Composite Index gained 0.1 per cent.

“Remember back in the first Trump Presidency, when folk were buying baseball caps for every round number milestone that the Dow hit? Well, I suppose it’s time that we all went and bought a new hat, engraved with ‘Spoos 6,000’ – as that was the milestone that was breached yesterday, with the front S&P 500 future trading north of that figure for the first time ever,” Michael Brown, Senior Research Strategist at Pepperstone, said.

“I can’t say that there was a particular catalyst for the move, which seemed more to be a continuation of the initial post-election equity gains than anything else, with the Nasdaq and Dow also notching fresh records as the day went on.”

Meanwhile in Europe, the indexes mostly retreated to close out a losing week as investors weighed the impact of Donald Trump's presidential election win.

London's FTSE 100 was down 0.8 per cent at the market close on Friday.

In other major European indices, Paris' CAC 40 declined 1.2 per cent as the bourse was hit by falling luxury shares and Frankfurt's DAX also dropped 0.8 per cent at the close as investors digested the collapse of the German government coalition.

In Asia, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was up 0.3 per cent.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng was down 1.1 per cent, while the Shanghai Composite declined 0.5 per cent

In commodities, Brent, the benchmark for two thirds of the world's oil, was trading 2.33 per cent lower at $73.87 a barrel at the market close. West Texas Intermediate, the gauge that tracks US crude, closed down by 2.74 per cent to $70.38 a barrel.

Spot gold, meanwhile, fell 0.8 per cent to $2,685.34 an ounce.