Industrials propel U.S. stocks higher again; Macy’s plunges

NEW YORK» A day of back-andforth trading Thursday ended with the fifth gain in a row for U.S. stocks. Industrial companies such as Boeing and General Electric rose, while retailers fell as Macy’s suffered its biggest loss of all time.

Stocks struggled in the early going, and the Dow Jones industrial average lost 175 points after U.S. and Chinese officials wrapped trade talks in Beijing. Transportation and machinery companies climbed after the U.S. trade representative said China agreed to buy more agricultural and manufactured products.

Macy’s said its sales over the holidays were worse than expected and slashed its annual profit and sales forecasts. Kohl’s and L Brands also posted disappointing results, and a wide variety of retailers plummeted as investors worried that the stock market’s December plunge stopped some shoppers from spending as much as they had planned.

“High-end consumers — even though they’re making decent money (and) the economy is going on relatively strong — it may have affected their willingness to splurge over the holidays,” said Ken Perkins, president of the research firm Retail Metrics. “It was not good timing at all.”

The S&P 500 index added 11.68 points, or 0.5 percent, to 2,596.64. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 122.80 points, or 0.5 percent, to 24,001.92 after it fell 175 points in the morning.

The Nasdaq composite rose 28.99 points, or 0.4 percent, to 6,986.07. The Russell 2000 index of smaller-company stocks picked up 6.63 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,445.43.

U.S. negotiators said China’s delegation pledged to buy more energy and agricultural products and manufactured goods. That helped Boeing climb 2.6 percent to $352.61. General Electric jumped 5.2 percent to $8.94, while Deere rose 3.1 percent to $159.12.

But that point is considered a relatively minor area of disagreement, and there were no hints of progress on bigger issues. The U.S. wants China to change its technology policy to reduce cybertheft of trade secrets, and it seeks more access to the Chinese market and increased protection for foreign patents and copyrights.