Wall Street rally sputters in Dow's best week since 2011

By Noel Randewich

(Reuters) - A rally following Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election ran out of steam on Friday, pressuring energy, materials and healthcare stocks.

A surge in banks and infrastructure companies in the two days following Trump's upset triumph on Tuesday put the Dow Jones industrial average on track for its best week since 2011, even as trading was little changed on Friday with U.S. bond markets closed for Veteran's Day.

Investors have been betting on Trump's campaign promises to simplify regulation in the health and financial sectors and boost spending on infrastructure.

"Wall Street is going to be watching a lot of (Trump's) appointments and policy announcements to see whether it validates the more optimistic tone we've seen in the markets in the past few days," said Alan Gayle, senior investment strategist and director of asset allocation at RidgeWorth Investments in Atlanta, Georgia.

 

The S&P 500 financial index <.SPSY> has gained 7.9 percent in the past three sessions. Industrials <.SPLRCI> have surged 4.4 percent since the election and healthcare <.SPXHC> is up 3.1 percent.

Tempering sentiment among stock investors, Federal Reserve Vice Chairman Stanley Fischer said on Friday economic growth prospects appear strong enough for a gradual hike in interest rates, but the central bank is monitoring an increase in long-term U.S. government borrowing costs.

At 2:29 pm ET, the Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> was down 0.02 percent at 18,804.42 points but remained up 5.1 percent for the week.

The S&P 500 <.SPX> lost 0.34 percent to 2,160.14 points, while the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added 0.22 percent to 5,220.37.

Nvidia jumped 27 percent, helping keep the Nasdaq in positive territory after the graphic chip maker reported its biggest quarterly revenue growth in more than six years.

Walt Disney rose 3 percent after its executives promised earnings growth for the next two years. Barclays also upgraded the media company's stock to "equal weight" from "underweight".

Declining issues outnumbered advancing ones on the NYSE by a 1.02-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 2.30-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 36 new 52-week highs and 6 new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 314 new highs and 33 new lows.

(Reporting by Noel Randewich; Editing by Bernadette Baum)