Wall Street closes at new highs after choppy trading

Wall Street capped a choppy day of trading Friday with modest gains for stocks, nudging the major indexes to more all-time highs.

The latest milestones punctuated the best month for the broader market in nearly a year, as investors balanced encouraging company earnings growth against concerns over rising inflation and supply chain disruptions.

The S&P 500 rose 0.2 percent after wavering between small gains and losses for much of the day. That was good enough to give the benchmark index its fourth all-time high this week. The index, which fell 4.8 percent in September, bounced back with a 6.9 percent gain for October, its biggest monthly gain since November 2020. The S&P is now up 22.6 percent for the year.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and Nasdaq each rose 0.3 percent Friday. Both also set all-time highs.

Bond yields mostly fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 1.55 percent from 1.56 percent late Thursday.

Investors continued to focus on corporate earnings as they look for clues for how companies are managing persistent supply chain delays and rising inflation.

“It’s been a big week of earnings,“said J.J. Kinahan, chief strategist with TD Ameritrade. “Pretty much since noon Eastern we just kind of bounced back and forth, so it tells me most people are where they want to be for the end of month.”

The S&P 500 rose 8.96 points to 4,605.38. Decliners outnumbered gainers in the index. Still, gains in technology, health care and communication services stocks outweighed losses elsewhere in the market.

The Dow added 89.08 points to 35,819.56, while the Nasdaq gained 50.27 points to 15,498.39. The Russell 2000 index of small companies slipped 0.79 points, or less than 0.1 percent, to 2,297.19.

A wide range of companies, most recently Apple and Amazon, have flagged challenges due to rising costs or supply chain problems.

Apple fell 1.8 percent a day after the iPhone maker reported that its fiscal fourth-quarter revenue fell short of analysts’ forecasts because supply shortages are making it difficult to meet demand. Internet retail behemoth Amazon shed 2.2 percent after higher costs and supply chain problems crimped its third-quarter financial results and its revenue forecast.

The warnings from Apple and Amazon raise concerns that the economic recovery faces a bumpier road ahead through the holiday shopping season as people pay more for products and wait longer to receive everything from everyday purchases to gifts.