By Caroline Valetkevitch and Johann M Cherian
June 12 (Reuters) – U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday as investors held out hope for a peace deal between Iran and the United States and as SpaceX shares surged in their debut, making it Wall Street’s biggest public listing in history.
The United States and Iran signalled that an agreement to end their war was close, with a senior U.S. administration official saying a draft proposal was in place that was liked by both sides. U.S. President Donald Trump has said several times since mid-March that a deal with Iran to end the war was close.
Market participants were glued to shares of Elon Musk’s SpaceX, which began trading on the Nasdaq on Friday. Its shares closed up 19.2% at $160.95, well above the IPO price of $135 apiece. Its market capitalization was last at $2.1 trillion.
Shares of other space stocks, which soared in the lead-up to the debut, eased on Friday. Rocket Lab’s stock fell 10.8%, while Intuitive Machines was down 13.1% and Planet Labs declined 8.8%.
The reported progress in peace talks helped to lift sentiment, said Jake Dollarhide, chief executive officer of Longbow Asset Management in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
“There’s still hope for a peace deal. Trump called off the attacks … Third parties are confirming a peace deal is happening.”
That puts pressure on oil prices and reduces worries about higher inflation and interest rates, he said.
Investors were also looking ahead to next week’s Federal Reserve policy meeting, which will be the first under the leadership of Kevin Warsh. Traders will be looking for any signs of whether a rate hike is likely as fed funds futures traders price in a 55% chance of an increase by December.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 353.51 points, or 0.70%, to 51,202.26, the S&P 500 gained 37.16 points, or 0.50%, to 7,431.46 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 79.18 points, or 0.31%, to 25,888.84.
The small-cap Russell 2000 nabbed a record closing high.
Stocks also ended higher for the week, with each of the three major indexes up roughly 7% for the period.
But U.S. equity funds saw their first weekly outflow in three weeks, and earlier this week the technology index confirmed a correction. Analysts believe some of the recent weakness could be due to traders trimming holdings ahead of SpaceX’s debut.
SpaceX is now ranked among the biggest publicly listed U.S. companies.
Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina, said he was surprised by the lack of volatility in SpaceX so far, given the hype around the IPO.