Stocks finished the week higher, buoyed in part by the Fed rate cut.
It was a positive week for stocks, fueled by both anticipation of a Fed rate cut and then the actual Fed rate cut on Wednesday.
As of Friday afternoon, small caps were leading the way, as the Russell 2000 jumped 2.5% on the week. That’s not surprising since small caps are seen as one of the biggest beneficiaries of rates cuts.
The Nasdaq Composite was up about 1.9% for the week, while the S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average each climbed roughly 1%.
Year-to-date, the S&P 500 has gained about 13.1% while the Nasdaq has climbed 16.9%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average is up 8.7% while the Russell 2000 index has increased 10.3%.
Here are the top stocks of the week, including the best performer on the S&P 500.
- 89Bio (NASDAQ:ETNB), up 85%: 89Bio, a midcap, is a biopharmaceutical company that develops therapies for patients with liver and cardiometabolic diseases. The stock price surged some 85% on the news this week that it is being acquired by Swiss pharmaceutical company Roche at a price of $14.50 per share or approximately $3.5 billion.
- New Fortress Energy (NASDAQ:NFE), up 81%: New Fortress Energy, a small cap, is a provider of natural gas and liquefied natural gas (LNG) infrastructure and solutions for mainly governments, municipalities, utilities, and industrial companies. Its stock soared some 81% this week alone after it inked a long-term deal with Puerto Rico to supply natural gas. This is a penny stock, trading at $2.34 per share.
- Oklo (NYSE:OKLO), up 58%: The third best performer this week was Oklo, a nuclear power company that makes small modular reactors (SMRs), specializing in liquid metal-cooled reactors. This large cap stock jumped some 24% on Friday alone on the news that the United States and the United Kingdom were collaborating on a plan to accelerate the development of nuclear energy. Other nuclear stocks were up as well, including NuScale Power (NYSE:SMR), which jumped 19% on Friday and 26% for the week.
- Intel (NASDAQ:INTC): up 24%: Among stocks on the S&P 500, Intel was the top performer, rising about 24% this week. The catalyst for Intel was Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), which announced it was investing $5 billion in Intel and collaborating to jointly develop data center and PC products. It comes just weeks after the U.S. government reported that it was making an $8.9 billion, or 10% stake, in Intel stock.
