Wall Street adds to its big January

S&P 500 finishes third straight winning week

A strong week for Wall Street closed out with modest gains Friday, sending the stock market to its highest level since early December.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2% to clinch its third winning week in the last four and was near its highest level since the summer, before fading at the end of the day. It's rallied through January on growing belief inflation is on a steady downswing, hopefully leading to less pressure on the economy and markets.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 28 points, or 0.1%, while the Nasdaq composite gained 0.9%.

Helping to lead the way was American Express, which jumped 10.5% despite reporting weaker profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. It gave a forecast for earnings through 2023 that topped Wall Street's expectations and announced a planned increase to its dividend.

Another big gain for Tesla's

stock also supported the market. It rose 11% following its stronger-than-expected profit report for the end of 2022 released earlier in the week.

They helped offset a 6.4% loss for Intel following a jarring warning from the chipmaker. Not only did its revenue and earnings fall short of expectations last quarter, it also gave a forecast for revenue this quarter more than $2 billion below analysts' expectations.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 10.13 points to 4,070.56. The Dow climbed 28.67 to 33,978.08, and the Nasdaq gained 109.30 to 11,621.71.

Hasbro fell 8.1% after saying it “underperformed” in this past holiday shopping season and will likely report a 17% drop in revenue for the fourth quarter. The company will cut about 1,000 jobs to reduce costs.

So far, the job market has remained remarkably resilient despite a slowing overall economy. Almost all of the high-profile layoff announcements have been within the tech industry, which raced to expand after the pandemic sent demand for technology soaring.

Earnings reporting season is entering its heart, and companies have been