The S&P 500 financial index rallied, with banks helping lift the Dow to its highest ever. Read more at straitstimes.com.

The historic addition of artificial intelligence (AI) colossus Nvidia may spell trouble for Wall Street's most iconic index.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) rose into fresh all-time highs on Friday, clipping into 44,000 as stocks lean firmly bullish to close out a record week. The Dow had its best week since October of 2023, rising nearly 5% and piercing record bids three days in a row.

Most indexes, like the S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite, assign a higher weighting to the largest companies by market cap. For example, Apple has roughly 11 times the market cap of Coca-Cola, so it has a much higher weighting in the S&P 500. But in the Dow, Apple is the 12th highest-weighted company by market cap because the index is price-weighted.

Intel will be replaced by Nvidia on the blue-chip Dow Jones Industrial Average index after a 25-year run, underscoring the shift in the chipmaking market and marking another setback for the struggling semiconductor firm.

U.S. stocks were higher after the close on Friday, as gains in the Consumer Goods, Utilities and Financials sectors led shares higher. At the close in NYSE, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.63% to hit a new all time high,