Health care, energy firms push stock market higher

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 that 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, 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.