The S&P 500 closed Friday at a record 7,234.40, capping a weekly gain of 5.2% that ranks as Wall Street's strongest five-day performance since the post-election surge of November 2024. The Nasdaq Composite finished at 22,518 — up 6.4% on the week — while the Dow Jones Industrial Average added 1,847 points to close at 47,029, a fresh all-time high.
The advance was powered by two synchronized tailwinds: a Q1 earnings season that has so far produced an 8.1% aggregate beat versus consensus — nearly double the five-year average — and the dramatic de-escalation of the Iran-Hormuz crisis culminating in Saturday's formal ceasefire signing. The CBOE Volatility Index collapsed to 16.8, its lowest reading since February 18.
Breadth Validates the Rally
Unlike many recent rallies driven exclusively by the Magnificent Seven, the past week's gains were broad-based. The equal-weight S&P 500 outperformed the cap-weighted index for the first time in seven weeks. The Russell 2000 small-cap index surged 7.4% — its best week since December 2023 — and 87% of S&P 500 constituents traded above their 50-day moving averages, the highest reading since November.
Sector leadership came from financials (+7.8%), industrials (+6.9%), consumer discretionary (+6.4%), and technology (+6.1%). Energy was the only major sector to decline, falling 2.3% as oil prices retreated on ceasefire progress. Defensive sectors lagged, with utilities and consumer staples both up less than 2%.
Strategists Lift Year-End Targets
Wall Street strategists wasted no time updating their year-end forecasts. JPMorgan's Dubravko Lakos-Bujas raised the firm's 2026 S&P 500 target to 7,500 from 7,150. Morgan Stanley's Mike Wilson, long the Street's most prominent bear, capitulated and lifted his target to 7,200 from 6,500. Goldman Sachs' David Kostin moved to 7,400, while Bank of America's Savita Subramanian held at 7,300.
"The combination of a 78% earnings beat rate, falling oil, falling volatility, and removal of the Hormuz tail risk is hard to fight," Wilson wrote in his Sunday note. "The technical picture has decisively turned." Lakos-Bujas added that "we expect at least one more leg higher driven by Mag-7 earnings before the market settles into a summer consolidation."