US stocks rose and made fresh record highs on Friday to end a week that saw solid gains as geopolitical risks abate toward the end of a blockbuster 2019. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 78.13 points, or 0.3% to 28,455.09. The broader S&P 500 rose 0.5% to 3,221.23 while the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.4% to 8,924.96 and notched an eight-day winning streak. Carnival shares led the S&P 500 higher, surging more than 7% on strong quarterly results. Verizon and 3M both rose more than 1.8% to push the Dow into record levels. The S&P 500 was up more than 1.5% for the week and posted its fourth consecutive weekly gain. The Dow and Nasdaq were up 1.2% and 2.1%, respectively, for the week. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq also had their best weekly performance since August. The S&P 500 is up nearly 28.5% year to date with less than 10 trading days left in 2019. That would be the index’s best one-year performance since 2013, when it rallied 29.6%. Stocks tend to carry such strong momentum into the following year. Data compiled by Nordea Research shows the S&P 500 posted positive returns the year after rallying more than 25% in 12 of 18 occasions.
