Equities finished mixed last week in mostly quiet, pre-holiday trading, and slightly off new highs reached earlier. As has been the case all year, the record levels achieved are only just above the previous plateaus. Health-care, tech and financial stocks rose. U.S. financial markets will be closed for Memorial Day observance Monday.

Even with the broad market hitting all-time highs, some investors fret about the continued notable divergence of transportation sector, which has sagged since late December. In particular, investors last week bailed out of the formerly highflying airlines group, which fell a painful 11%.

In a speech Friday afternoon, Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen reaffirmed the market’s view that the central bank would probably raise rates sometime later this year if the economy improves as expected. She also said the weak U.S. economic data this year don’t signify there is a sustained slowdown, even if the outlook is “highly uncertain.” The Fed leader expects a pickup from the poor first-quarter growth rate and also repeated that the pace of hikes would most likely be gradual.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average lost 41 points, or 0.2%, on the week, to 18,232.02 after closing at a record 18,312.39 on Tuesday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 3 to 2126.06, down from the record close Thursday of 2130.82. The Nasdaq added 41, or 0.8%, to 5089.39.

With first-quarter earnings season over and no particularly significant economic data released last week, the market returned to mulling the default factor: the timing and pace of the Fed’s first interest rate hike, now expected in September.

“Investors are a fickle bunch,” says Thomas Stringfellow, president of Frost Investment Advisors in San Antonio, “and they breathed a collective sigh of relief” when Yellen reaffirmed the market’s expectations of a fall hike. Like the Fed chair, Stringfellow thinks the economy will improve later this year.

(Source: Barrons Online)