US stock indexes rose on Friday, with the Dow Jones index hitting a new all-time high and the S&P 500 posting its longest weekly gain since 2023, its eighth straight week of gains.

Market participants were assessing the situation in the Middle East. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Thursday that there were positive signs in the process of developing a possible agreement with Iran. There are good signs, but they don't want to be too optimistic, and they’ll see what happens in the next few days, he had told reporters. Also, Rubio had noted that US President Donald Trump has always preferred the diplomatic option, but may also resort to other methods if an agreement is not reached.

There was no escalation of tension in the following days. As of Sunday, the framework agreement between Washington and Tehran was 95% approved by the parties, Fox News reported on Sunday, citing a US official. At the same time, the source noted that negotiators are still arguing over the wording on Tehran's nuclear arsenal and the Strait of Hormuz.

On Friday, Kevin Warsh was sworn in as the 17th chairman of the US Federal Reserve. During a ceremony at the White House on Friday, US President Donald Trump said that he wants Warsh to act independently in this position and just do a great job.

Meanwhile, Christopher Waller, a member of the US Federal Reserve Board of Governors, defended the rejection of the signal that the regulator’s next step would be a cut in the base rate rather than an increase. Inflation is not moving in the right direction, he said at an event in Frankfurt. Based on the latest data, he would abandon the soft wording of the monetary policy statement in order to make it clear that a future rate cut is no more likely than a rise, Waller added.

Also on Friday, it became known that the US consumer confidence index, calculated by the University of Michigan, fell to a record low of 44.8 points in May, compared with 49.8 points a month earlier. The value of the indicator was significantly worse than the initial estimate of 48.2 points. Analysts did not expect a revision.

Meanwhile, analysts at UBS Global Wealth Management raised their forecast for the S&P 500 stock index by the end of 2026 to 7,900 from the previously expected 7,500 points, citing the stability of US consumer spending and high demand for data center infrastructure.

In addition, market participants appreciated corporate news.

Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software fell by 4.4%, although this American video game publisher significantly reduced its net loss and increased revenue by 6% in the fourth quarter of fiscal 2026. The company also confirmed that the release of the game Grand Theft Auto VI, which had been repeatedly postponed, will take place on November 19.

Workday's stock price rose by 5.2%. The developer of personnel management software for the first quarter net profit and revenue exceeded market forecasts.

Estee Lauder's market capitalization soared 11.9%. The American cosmetics manufacturer has suspended merger talks with Spanish Puig.

BJ's Wholesale Club's market value fell 8.3%, although one of the largest US department store chains reported a 10% increase in revenue in the last fiscal quarter to $5.66 billion, while analysts had forecast $5.44 billion.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 0.58% to 50,579.7 points.

The leader in growth in the index was Merck & Co. shares, which rose 5.6%, while the leader in decline was Nvidia Corp. shares, which fell 1.9%.

The Standard & Poor's 500 index rose 0.37% to 7,473.47 points.

And the Nasdaq Composite index rose 0.19% to 26,343.97 points.

Source: https://news.am/en/news/1038011