By Chuck Mikolajczak

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S&P 500 briefly surpassed the 6,000 mark and closed with its biggest weekly percentage gain in a year, as Donald Trump’s election victory and a possible Republican Party sweep in Congress fueled expectations for favorable business policies.

Also supporting stocks this week was a widely expected interest rate cut of 25 basis points by the Federal Reserve on Thursday.

The S&P 500 and the Dow Industrials registered their best weekly percentage jump since early November 2023, while the Nasdaq notched its best week in two months and second-best week of 2024.

Investors were also monitoring for a likely “Red Sweep” as Republicans were set to keep their narrow lead in the House of Representatives after winning control of the Senate. That would make it easier for Trump to enact his legislative plans.

Expectations for lower corporate taxes and deregulation lifted the Nasdaq to record closing highs for three straight sessions. The S&P secured its 50th record close of the year.

“It is a psychologically important number but with all the developments this week, I don’t think it’s terribly important if we close at 6,005 or if we close at 5,995. The market is way up this week,” said Mike Dickson, head of research and quantitative strategies at Horizon Investments in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“There’s been so many things, so much good news for the market this week as evidenced by the prices. All of that far outweighs whether or not we’re on the right or left hand side of that 6,000 number when the close happens.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 259.65 points, or 0.59%, to 43,988.99, the S&P 500 gained 22.44 points, or 0.38%, to 5,995.54 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 17.32 points, or 0.09%, to 19,286.78.

For the week, the S&P 500 gained 4.66%, the Nasdaq rose 5.74%, and the Dow climbed 4.61%.

The Dow rose above 44,000 for the first time, in part due to a late boost from Salesforce, which climbed 3.59% after Bloomberg reported the software company will hire 1,000 employees to promote its artificial intelligence Agentforce Tool.

The S&P 500 and Nasdaq secured their fourth straight session of gains.

Rate-sensitive sectors such as real estate and utilities were the best performing of the 11 major S&P 500 groups as Treasury yields fell for a second straight session after a sharp jump following the election.

But the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury note yield remained near a four-month high, and markets have scaled back expectations for the pace of Fed rate cuts in 2025 as concerns remain over the incoming administration’s proposed tariffs which are likely to rekindle inflation.

The small cap Russell 2000 also advanced and was up 8.51% for the week, registering its largest weekly percentage gain since April 2020, as domestically concentrated stocks are seen as likely to benefit from easier regulations, lower taxes and less exposure to import tariffs.

U.S. consumer sentiment rose to a seven-month high in early November, with a measure of households’ expectations for the future climbing to the highest in more than three years, led by brightening outlooks among Republicans, the University of Michigan’s Consumer Sentiment Index showed.

Airbnb shares dropped 8.66% after the homestay company missed third-quarter profit estimates, while social media company Pinterest tumbled 14% after a disappointing revenue forecast.

U.S.-listings of Chinese companies lost ground as the government’s latest fiscal support measures once again failed to impress investors. JD.com fell 6.99% and Alibaba lost 5.94%.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.7-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and by a 1.21-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 88 new 52-week highs and 10 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 211 new highs and 108 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 15.46 billion shares, compared with the 12.74 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

(Reporting by Chuck Mikolajczak; Additional reporting by Lisa Mattackal, Ankika Biswas in Bengaluru and Richard Chang)

---