Nasdaq Hits High of 15 Years

David Miller
March 21, 2015


Stocks in the U.S. were up on Friday, which helped push the Nasdaq to a high of 15 years and helped the S&P 500 to snap a losing streak of three weeks; following a U.S. dollar pullback; results that were upbeat from Nike; as well as further gains in the biotech industry.

Recent dramatic gains in the dollar have heightened worries about the impact of the currency on earnings of multinational corporations from the U.S. Earnings projections for S&P 500 for the first three months of 2015 have fallen dramatically since January 1.

Amongst the early reports for earnings, Nike jumped by 3.7% on the day, which was the biggest boost the Dow saw after it posted a strong profit for the quarter beating estimates on Wall Street.

The largest sports apparel maker in the world sold more apparel and shoes that were higher margin but warned that a stronger dollar would be taking a toll on its ongoing quarter.

The biotech index in Nasdaq rose for the eighth consecutive session gaining almost 7.5% since March 10.

On Friday, it was up 0.5%, powered by a climb of 9.8% in Biogen Idec. Close to 9.2 billion shares exchanged hands on exchanges in the U.S., compared with an average of 6.6 billion.

The company said its drug that is still in the experimental stage became the first to treat Alzheimer’s and significantly slow the cognitive decline and lower the brain plaque in those patients with early stage and mild stage type of the disease.

The Nasdaq ended the day 22 points above its record high at closing, while the S&P 500 was less than 10 points under its highest close ever.

A big part behind the gains was a Federal Reserve Bank statement released on Wednesday, which showed an approach that is less expressive to raising the interest rates than was expected by investors.

For the full week, the Dow was up 2.1%, the S&P 500 was up 2.7% and the Nasdaq 3.2%.

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