By Dan Strumpf
Major stock benchmarks shot to fresh records Friday as investors
cheered Scottish voters' decision to remain part of the U.K., while
market watchers looked ahead to public trading of Alibaba Group
Holding Ltd.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 50 points, or 0.3%, to
17316 points, earlier hitting an intraday record of 17350.64 in
early trading. The S&P 500 index rose four points, or 0.2%, to
2015 after having reached a record of 2019.27. The Nasdaq Composite
Index advanced five points, or 0.1%, to 4599.
Investors widely embraced Thursday's vote in Scotland that
rejected independence from the U.K., snapping up shares of European
companies and pushing the British pound to a two-week high against
the dollar and a two-year high against the euro.
The Stoxx Europe 600 index climbed 0.3% recently, while the
U.K.'s FTSE 100 index gained 0.4%.
"Uncertainty is never good for the market, and now you've
removed a layer of uncertainty, so everyone is embracing that,"
said Michael Antonelli, sales trader at brokerage Robert W. Baird.
"The market would have gotten smoked if they had voted 'yes'."
While the vote heads off thorny economic and political questions
over the fate of the U.K., growing confidence in a vote against
independence had already boosted markets earlier this week, before
the referendum result was known.
"What we're seeing this year is almost every geopolitical risk
or news story at best creates short-term volatility," said Doug
Cote, chief market strategist at Voya Investment Management.
Meanwhile, investors were also looking ahead to public trading
in Alibaba after the e-commerce company priced late Thursday at $68
a share. The company is expected to emerge with an early market
value of $168 billion, making it one of the 40 largest companies
globally.
Recent indications were that the stock would open between $90
and $91 a share, significantly above the Thursday night price.
Shares are set to begin trading later Friday on the New York Stock
Exchange under the ticker symbol BABA.
Friday's gains extend a strong week for stocks, as investors
were encouraged by the Federal Reserve's latest policy statement on
Wednesday that signaled plans to keep interest rates low for a long
time. The S&P 500 is up 1.6% on the week and 9.2% this year.
The economic calendar was light Friday.
Trading in stocks broadly has been guarded, with investors wary
of pushing stocks sharply higher and setting cautious limits on
their trades, said Tom Carter, managing director at brokerage
JonesTrading. Still, investors seem comfortable with higher stock
prices.
"Nothing's spooked the market this yet--all the big stuff this
week, and nothing's spooked it," Mr. Carter said. "You've been
hearing for a while, 'OK, this is the top, we're due, this is the
right time of year for us to move a little lower.' And it's
not."
Shares of Yahoo Inc. gained 0.3%. The company is one of
Alibaba's biggest stakeholders and is set to earn about $5.1
billion on the IPO as one of the biggest sellers of shares.
Shares of Oracle Corp. fell 4.3% after longtime Chief Executive
Larry Allison said late Thursday he would step down from the
technology stalwart.
Rite Aid Corp. shares declined 3.7%, extending a slump after
Thursday's loss of 18.5%, after the company reduced its full-year
earnings guidance based on expectations for lower pharmacy margins
in the second half.
In commodity markets, crude-oil futures fell 1.2% to $91.96 a
barrel. Gold futures declined 0.6% to $1228.30 an ounce. The yield
on the 10-year Treasury note eased to 2.616% from 2.629% late
Thursday.
Josie Cox and Matt Jarzemsky contributed to this article.
Write to Dan Strumpf at daniel.strumpf@wsj.com