By Caroline Valetkevitch
NEW YORK (Reuters) -Most stock indexes climbed on Friday, with Wall Street buoyed by technology-related shares, while the dollar had its first weekly rise in over a month as investors searched for signs that the U.S.-China trade war may be easing.
Shares of Google parent Alphabet rose 1.7% after it beat profit expectations and reaffirmed AI spending targets, while the S&P 500 technology, consumer discretionary and communication services sectors gained more than 1% each.
But investors have been listening closely to corporate calls this earnings season, particularly for lowered or pulled projections, amid uncertainty surrounding U.S. President Donald Trump’s tariff offensive.
Trump said in an interview published on Friday that tariff negotiations were under way with China, but Beijing denied any talks were taking place, the latest in a series of conflicting signals over progress to de-escalate a trade war threatening to sap global growth.
Trump told Time magazine that talks were taking place and that Chinese President Xi Jinping had called him.
Tit-for-tat tariffs that began with Trump’s announcement of hefty import levies on April 2 had threatened to stall trade between the world’s two biggest economies and sparked fears of a slowdown in global growth.
“This week you’ve seen kind of relief that maybe some of the worst case of the Trump tariff actions won’t come true,” said Chip Rewey, CIO of Rewey Asset Management, a registered investment adviser based in New Jersey.
“While we’ve recovered from some of the lows, we haven’t pushed back to highs. And I think somewhere in that range is where we’ll stay for a while.”
The three major U.S. stock indexes registered sharp gains for the week, while European shares notched their second straight weekly gain.
The rebound in stocks will be tested next week when another wave of corporate results, led by Apple and Microsoft, are released.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 20.10 points, or 0.05%, to 40,113.50, the S&P 500 rose 40.44 points, or 0.74%, to 5,525.21 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 216.90 points, or 1.26%, to 17,382.94.
MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe rose 4.88 points, or 0.60%, to 824.74. The pan-European STOXX 600 index ended up 0.35%.
In Japan, the Nikkei was up 1.8% on Friday and has regained all its losses since Trump’s announcement of the highest U.S. tariffs in 100 years – levies he largely suspended, except for China and a baseline tariff of 10%.
After taking a beating in recent weeks due to tariff news and a flight from U.S. assets, the dollar recovered slightly against the euro and yen.
