The Dow added 39, the S&P gained 4 and the Nasdaq rose 6. On Friday, the S&P closed 15 lower at 2,094, finishing the week roughly where it started . The Dow dropped 141 to 17,899, but over the week it eked out a 0.3% gain. The Nasdaq ended the day lower, shedding 31 points to 5,051 and lost 0.3% over the week.
The pace of technological change has long been happening at the lightning-fast speed of the Internet. Now, start-up financing is increasingly taking place at that speed as well. The frequency of the fund-raising by many start-ups – now multiple rounds in months rather than years – is “otherwise unheard-of. The shrinking time between funding rounds shows how Silicon Valley’s current boom is not just about start-ups reaching a high valuation but also about how fast they can pull that off.
American companies looking to do deals abroad are finding a welcome tailwind, a strong US dollar. After some time in the doldrums, the greenback has gained 25.5% against the euro, 20.8% against the Japanese yen and 9.5% against the British pound over the past year. The moves make it cheaper for US companies to buy foreign ones.
Much more is highlighted in The Wall Street Wrap-up.
