LIVE MARKETS-A broad rally pushes S&P 500, Dow to new closing highs

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A BROAD RALLY PUSHES S&P 500, DOW NEW CLOSING HIGHS

Tech and chips reclaimed their spot at the head of the table on Friday, leading a well-balanced rally that pushed the S&P 500 .SPX, the Dow .DJI (and a host of other indexes) to record closing highs.

But the tech-heavy Nasdaq .IXIC led the three major U.S. stock indexes as investors rekindled their on-again, off-again love affair with AI-related stocks. The Philadelphia SE Semiconductor index .SOX jumped 2.7% on the day, a solid bounceback from Thursday's 1.9% drop.

All three major indexes logged weekly gains.

Other indexes to claim all-time closing highs included the Russell 2000 .RUT, Consumer Discretionary .SPLRCD, Communication Services .SPLRCL, S&P 500 Value .IVX, and the Dow Transports .DJT, among others.

A weaker-than-expected-yet-not-calamitous jobs report showed the U.S. economy added 50,000 jobs in the final month of December, even as annual wage inflation gained heat. And while the jobless rate contracted more than analysts predicted, to 4.4%, much of that was likely attributed to a dip in the labor market participation rate.

All told, the report did little to budge the needle regarding expectations that the U.S. Federal Reserve will let rates stand at this month's monetary policy meeting. Financial markets are pricing in a 95% likelihood of a stand-pat January Fed, according to CME's FedWatch Tool.

The coming week promises a fairly crowded kick-off to fourth-quarter reporting season, with JPMorgan Chase JPM.N, Bank of America BAC.N, Wells Fargo WFC.N, Citigroup C.N, Goldman Sachs GS.N and Morgan Stanley MS.N all expected to report.

On the economics front, CPI, new home sales and NFIB's small business sentiment report are due on Tuesday, while Wednesday offers retail sales, PPI, existing home sales and business inventories. Import/export prices, Empire State/Philly Fed share the stage on Thursday, and industrial production and NAHB's homebuilder sentiment wrap things up on Friday.

Here's your closing snapshot:

(Stephen Culp, Terence Gabriel)

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