The bull market continues. Wall Street continues to see gains and record-breaking gains.

Friday's session on Wall Street ended with another gain in recent days, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq also setting new all-time highs. Analysts point to the continued bull market, supported by favorable fundamentals.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed up 0.47 percent and reached 44,901.92 points.

At the end of the day, the S&P 500 rose by 0.40 percent and amounted to 6,388.64 points.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 0.24 percent to 21,108.32 points.

The Russell 2000 mid-cap index rose 0.41 percent to 2,261.47 points.

The VIX index falls by 2.86%, to 14.95 points.

For the entire week, the Dow Jones gained

All three major US stock market indices ended the week in the black. The Dow Jones gained 1.3%, the Nasdaq rose 1%, and the S&P 500 gained 1.5% for the week.

Friday marked the 13th record close for the S&P 500 in 2025, with five of those records recorded this week as the index surpassed 6,300 for the first time. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq has recorded four record closes this week, surpassing the 21,000-point mark on Wednesday.

The S&P500 index has risen by 28% since its local low on April 8.

“The bull market continues, supported largely by favorable fundamentals,” Terry Sandven, chief equity strategist at US Bank Wealth Management, told CNBC.

"Inflation is stable, interest rates are holding within a range, and earnings are rising, creating favorable conditions for further stock price growth. We continue to expect the risk-on trend to continue this earnings season," he added.

Third-quarter sales forecasts beat market expectations, while some second-quarter profit metrics fell short of consensus estimates. Intel shares were up 13% year-to-date by the end of Thursday's trading session.

Next week on Wall Street marks the accumulation of second-quarter company reports. Companies with a combined capitalization of 38% of the entire S&P 500 index will report their results, twice as much as this week.

These include the "Magnificent Seven" companies such as Meta Platforms and Apple.

So far, of the 169 companies that have reported, 82% have beaten the consensus, which is the best result since Q2 2021.

Among the companies in the index that reported second-quarter results, profit growth averaged 4.5% year-on-year, while the pre-season consensus was 2.8%.

Market attention is shifting to the Fed meeting next week, where rates are expected to stabilize in the 4.25-4.50 percent range. The meeting will be interpreted in the context of continued pressure from US President Donald Trump on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell to lower the cost of money.

The market is not fully pricing in another 25 basis point rate cut in the US until October, and another one in January 2026.

On Thursday, for the first time in nearly two decades, a US president made an official visit to the central bank. During the visit, Trump and Powell publicly clashed over the cost of renovating the Fed headquarters, which the US president considered excessive. After the meeting, Trump stated that Powell's dismissal, as he had publicly discussed earlier, would not be necessary.

The market is monitoring the negotiations on a trade agreement between the European Union and the United States - next Friday, August 1, is the deadline for the US to introduce 30% tariffs on imports from the EU if the parties fail to reach an agreement.

US President Donald Trump said Friday afternoon that the chances of a deal are 50/50. He added that the prospects for reaching an agreement are "quite good." In April, the US imposed 25% tariffs on the European auto industry and 50% on EU steel and aluminum.

According to unofficial information from diplomats, the EU and the US are getting closer to concluding an agreement. It would introduce a uniform 15% tariff on EU goods imported to the US, modeled on the agreement between Washington and Tokyo.

On Thursday, US Trade Secretary Howard Lutnick assured that the EU is eager to reach an agreement and stated that the US is pushing for, among other things, better treatment of American technology giants and the abandonment of digital taxes that some member states have introduced.

In turn, the European Commission announced on Thursday that reaching a trade agreement with the US is within reach.

US durable goods orders fell 9.3% month-on-month in June, compared to the consensus of a 10.7% decline and a 16.4% increase a month earlier, the Commerce Department reported in its second estimate.

Orders for durable goods, excluding transportation, rose 0.2% month-on-month, compared to 0.5% the previous month. The market expected a 0.1% month-on-month increase.

Intel shares fell nearly 9% on Friday. The manufacturer announced the layoff of 15% of its workforce and the cancellation of several factories around the world, including in Poland, as well as a more conservative approach to the company's new operating philosophy based on subcontracting.

Shares of electric car maker Tesla rose more than 4% after Business Insider reported that Tesla's robotaxi service will debut in San Francisco this weekend. Tesla shares are down nearly 3% since the beginning of the week.

Shares of cable operator Charter Communications fell nearly 17%, posting their worst day ever after disappointing results. Charter Communications lost 117,000 broadband subscribers and 80,000 video subscribers in the second quarter. The news also weighed on other cable operators. Comcast fell nearly 5%, Altice fell about 9%, and EchoStar fell about 2%.

Shares of CBS TV owner rose more than 1% after the Federal Communications Commission on Thursday approved the $8 billion merger of Paramount and Skydance Media.

In the oil market, WTI futures for August fell 1.51 percent to USD 65.03 per barrel, while September Brent futures fell 1.23 percent to USD 68.33 per barrel. (PAP)

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