NEW YORK — The Standard & Poor’s 500 stock index ended the week nearly 2 points higher, enough to give it a seventh-straight week of gains. That’s the longest stretch of advances in more than two years.
The index lost 1.59 points to end at 1,519.79 Friday. For the week it held on to a gain of 1.86 points.
Investors piled into stocks at the beginning of the year after lawmakers reached a last-minute deal to avoid tax increases and spending cuts. The gains continued as investors were encouraged by signs that the housing and jobs markets are recovering. Company earnings have also held up well.
There are signs, however, that the rally is running out of steam.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 8.37 points to close at 13,981.76 Friday, but ended the week down 11 points. The index has now edged lower for two straight weeks.
“We’ve just had such a fast start to the year,” said John Fox, manager of the FAM value fund. “It just makes sense that you are going to have a leveling or a slowdown.”
Wal-Mart was the biggest decliner in the Dow on Friday. The stock fell $1.52, or2.2 percent, to $69.30 after Bloomberg News published excerpts from an internal email that said sales in February were a “total disaster.” The retailer, which reports earnings next week, said that sometimes internal communications lacked “proper context” and “are not entirely accurate.”
Energy companies also contributed to the slump, following the price of crude oil lower. Chevron shares fell 75 cents, or 0.6 percent, to $114.96.
The Nasdaq composite fell 6.63 points to 3,192.03 and was also down for the week, dropping 1.84 points.
Slightly more stocks fell than rose on the New York Stock Exchange. Consolidated volume was 3.7 billion shares, in line with the recent average.
Herbalife gained 47 cents, or 1.2 percent, to $38.74, and climbed as high as $44.93 after billionaire investor Carl Icahn disclosed that he had accumulated a 13 percent stake in the company. The stock of the dietary-supplement maker slumped last year after Pershing Square Capital Management’s William Ackman described it as a pyramid scheme and made investments that would be profitable if Herbalife’s stock fails.
Investors are continuing to put money into stocks. Lipper, a unit of financial-data provider Thomson Reuters, reported $2.4 billion flowed into stock funds this week, marking the sixth-straight week of increases.
In January, $37.4 billion went into stock funds, the most in that month since 2000.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury note, which moves inversely to its price, has risen as investors have put more cash into stocks. The yield rose 1 basis point to 2.01 percent, having started the year at 1.70 percent.
Shares of MeadWestvaco, a packaging company, surged $3.97, or 12.5 percent, to $35.65 after Nelson Peltz’s Trian Fund Management disclosed that it had taken a $51 million stake in the company.
Shares of Xoom, an online money-transfer company, surged $9.49, or 59 percent, to $25.49 on its first day as a publicly traded company. Xoom raised $101.2 million from selling 6.3 million shares at $16 each.
And shares of St. Jude Medical fell $1.48, or 3.4 percent, to $41.53 after a Cowen & Co. analyst downgraded the medical-device maker’s stock, saying he believes the company’s Durata heart wire is not very different from older wires that have been taken off the market.
Business, Pages 28 on 02/16/2013