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.
Gains in health care and energy companies powered the market higher.
The market got a brief boost after President Donald Trump expressed optimism the U.S. and China will reach a deal to resolve their costly trade dispute. The remarks came as representatives of both countries have resumed talks.
Large retailers and media and communications companies were the laggards.
“The market and market participants are more unsettled now than they have been in years,” said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. “We’re that much further on in the cycle and you have these tariffs and trade wars that are really still in the very early stages.”
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.
Like much of this week, the market spent much of Friday veering between bouts of listless trading and modest swings.
“Investors are really trying to figure out how they want to be positioned based on the incoming information,” Martin said. “It’s not surprising to me that at this time of year, given what we’ve seen, that we’re getting the intraday moves we’re getting.”
One of the day’s market swings came as traders reacted to 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.
Soybean futures spiked after Trump’s comments. Soybean prices have fallen sharply since this spring as the trade dispute with China led to a steep drop in China’s purchases of U.S. soybeans. Soybean futures jumped from $8.83 to $8.92 a bushel following the comments. They had traded as high as $10.78 a bushel in early March.
The Trump administration has imposed a 10 percent tariff on $200 billion of Chinese goods over complaints Beijing steals or pressures foreign companies to hand over technology as the price of market access. That tariff is set to rise to 25 percent in January. Another $50 billion of Chinese goods already is subject to 25 percent duties. Beijing has responded with penalty duties on $110 billion of American goods.
Washington and Beijing resumed talks over their spiraling trade dispute this week ahead of a meeting between President Xi Jinping and Trump, China’s Commerce Ministry said Thursday.
Health care stocks were among the biggest gainers Friday. Universal Health Services gained 3.9 percent to $133.