Rocky quarter ends with big gain in June

NEW YO R K » Wall Street ended a wobbly week with broad gains Friday, closing the books on June with its biggest monthly gain since January.

June marked a sharp about-face from May, when traders fled to safer holdings because of increased anxiety over the trade war between the U.S. and China, and signs of slowing global economic growth.

Despite lingering worries over trade, investors pushed stocks higher for much of this month after the Federal Reserve raised expectations that it is prepared to cut interest rates if needed to keep the economy growing.

Even after the roller-coaster quarter, investors are in good shape so far this year. The S&P 500 is up 17.3 percent, and the technology-heavy Nasdaq has gained 20.7 percent.

“It hasn’t been maybe as healthy a rally as we saw in the first (quarter),” said Brian Nick, the chief investment strategist at Nuveen. “When you look back 10 years from now, it’s not going to look like the sort of volatile period where we had this good April, terrible May and good June. It’s just going to look like a quarter where you know you made money in stocks, you made money in bonds.”

The S&P 500 index rose 16.84 points Friday, or 0.6 percent, to 2,941.76. The index ended the month with a 6.9 percent gain.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 73.38 points, or 0.3 percent, to 26,599.96. The Nasdaq composite rose 38.49 points, or 0.5 percent, to 8,006.24.

Smaller company stocks were big gainers for the second consecutive day. The Russell 2000 index climbed 20.02 points, or 1.3 percent, to 1,566.57.

Every major index finished the week with a loss — but ended June with solid gains.

Banks led the way higher Friday after the Federal Reserve late Thursday approved plans by the country’s 18 biggest banks to return more money to shareholders. The approvals were part of the Fed’s annual checkup of the banking system. JPMorgan Chase rose 2.7 percent, and Bank of America climbed 2.8 percent.

Industrial and energy stocks also posted strong gains. Union Pacific rose 1.9 percent, while oil companies including Chevron and Exxon also rose. Benchmark crude oil fell 96 cents to settle at $58.47 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, held steady at $66.55 per barrel.