Stocks close higher, S&P 500 post biggest weekly gain since 2013

Stocks closed slightly higher on Friday, extending their winning streak to six days in a row, and posted strong weekly gains.

But the major averages ended off their session highs after news broke that special counsel Robert Mueller indicted 13 Russian nationals and three Russian entities for allegedly interfering with the 2016 U.S. presidential election.

The market soon stabilized after Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein emphasized in a press conference that these indictments had no allegations of willing support to the Russians by Americans. "The nature of the scheme was that the defendants took extraordinary steps to make it appear that they were ordinary American political activists," he said.

"One of the key point is there's no finding that this actually affected the election results," said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at B. Riley FBR. "To the extent this is a first blush, it doesn't look market negative."

The Dow Jones industrial average closed 19.01 points higher at 25,219.38, with Pfizer as the best-performing stock in the index. The Dow also posted its sixth straight day of gains. At its session highs, it rose 232.05 points.

The S&P 500 closed just 0.04 percent higher at 2,732.22, eking out a six-day winning streak, after gaining as much as 0.9 percent. Utilities and health care were the best-performing sectors in the broad index.

Meanwhile, the Nasdaq composite snapped a five-day winning streak, closing 0.2 percent lower at 7,239.47. It rose as much as 0.7 percent on the day.

Source :- cnbc