US stocks close week with modest gains

NEW YORK: Stocks clung to modest gains on Wall Street on Friday (Saturday in Manila), giving the market another record high and a winning week.

The listless day for stocks capped off a mostly solid week of earnings where the technology sector once again powered the market higher. The sector has been the driving force behind a rally that started in October.

The S&P 500 index rose 1.77 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 5,088.80. That marks another record high for the benchmark index and its sixth winning week in the last seven.

Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 62.42 points, or 0.2 percent, to 39,131.53. The Nasdaq slipped 44.80 points, or 0.3 percent, to 15,996.82.

Weakness in some technology companies weighed down the market, in a reversal from Thursday. Apple fell 1 percent. Nvidia eked out a 0.4 percent gain, after crossing above the $2 trillion valuation mark earlier in the day. On Thursday (Friday in Manila), the chipmaker surged after reporting blockbuster demand for its semiconductors, which are used to power AI applications.

A pullback by travel-related companies also checked gains elsewhere in the market. Booking.com tumbled 10.1 percent, dragging other travel-related companies down. The online travel service beat Wall Street’s fourth-quarter sales and profit targets but issued a lukewarm forecast that spooked investors. Competitor Expedia Group fell 2 percent.

“Investors are sanguine, with political uncertainty, elevated valuations, and Fed uncertainty not able to dent the momentum in the market,” said Mark Hackett, chief of investment research at Nationwide.

Earnings remained the big focus. Ticket seller and concert promoter Live Nation rose 2 percent after beating analysts’ revenue forecasts. Sleep Number, which sells beds and bedding products, surged 33 percent after beating Wall Street’s revenue forecasts.

On the losing end, Warner Bros. Discovery fell 9.9 percent after reporting a bigger loss than Wall Street expected.

Outside of earnings, Intuitive Machines, the company that made the first US lunar landing in more than 50 years, soared 15.8 percent.

Energy stocks were mostly lower as oil and natural gas prices fell. US crude oil prices slumped 2.7 percent, and natural gas prices fell 7.4 percent.

Treasury yields slipped. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.26 percent from 4.33 percent late Thursday.

Markets were mostly higher in Europe and Asia. Tokyo’s markets were closed for a holiday, a day after they surged to an all-time high.