Health care, energy companies power US stock market higher

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By Alex Veiga, The Associated Press

Wall Street capped a day of volatile trading with a late-afternoon buying spree that sent U.S. stock indexes to a mostly higher finish Friday. Despite the 11th-hour rally, the benchmark S&P 500 index ended with its second weekly loss in four weeks.

The S&P 500 index rose 6.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,736.27. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 123.95 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,413.22. The Nasdaq composite slid 11.16 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,247.87. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 3.41 points, or 0.2 percent, to $1,527.53.

The S&P 500, which finished higher for the second straight day, ended the week with a loss of 1.6 percent.

One of the day’s market swings came as traders reacted to President Donald Trump’s remarks on trade.

At the White House, speaking about the lingering trade dispute, the president said he hoped the U.S. could make a deal with China.

“I think a deal will be made,” Trump said. “We’ll find out very soon.”

Stocks snapped higher after the remarks were reported, with the Dow briefly jumping as much as 220 points, before pulling back to about where they were beforehand.

Health care stocks were among the biggest gainers Friday. Universal Health Services gained 3.9 percent to $133.

Chipmaker Nvidia led a sell-off in technology stocks. The company plunged 18.8 percent to $164.43 after saying it had a large number of unsold chips because of a big drop in mining of cryptocurrencies.

Retailers also weighed on the market. Nordstrom cratered 13.7 percent to $50.93 after the department store issued weak guidance for the full year. That disappointing outlook overshadowed the company’s third-quarter results, which topped Wall Street’s estimates.

Williams-Sonoma tumbled 11.2 percent to $53.76 after the cookware seller said products were delayed because of shipping congestion out of China ahead of U.S. tariffs.

The price of U.S. crude oil finished flat after a two-day winning streak. Benchmark U.S. crude oil was unchanged at $56.46 a barrel in New York. Brent crude, used to price international oils, gained 0.2 percent to $66.76 a barrel in London. Despite the latest uptick, U.S. crude oil is still down about 13 percent for the month.

Bond prices rose. The 10-year Treasury fell to 3.07 percent from 3.11 percent late Thursday.

The dollar fell to 112.83 yen from 113.58 yen on Thursday. The euro strengthened to $1.1412 from $1.1348. The pound rose to $1.2831 from $1.2791.

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