NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is heading toward the finish of a strong week as U.S. stocks drift close to the all-time high they set just a few months earlier. The S&P 500 was up 0.1% in early trading Friday and potentially on track for a fifth straight gain. It’s heading for its third big winning week in the last four. Hopes have been building that President Donald Trump will lower his tariffs against other countries after reaching trade deals with them. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was little changed, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. AP’s earlier story follows below.
U.S. markets bounced slightly higher before the bell Friday with scant news to drive trading as earnings season winds down.
Futures for the S&P 500, Dow Jones Industrial Average Nasdaq all gained 0.4% before markets officially opened.
Charter Communications jumped 6.8% in premarket trading on news that it and Cox Communications were pursuing a $34.5 billion merger that would combine two of the largest cable companies in the U.S. The combined company will change its name to Cox Communications and keep Charter’s headquarters in Stamford, Connecticut, while maintaining a significant presence on Cox’s Atlanta campus.
Markets have calmed somewhat following months of turmoil unleashed by U.S. President Donald Trump’s on-again, off-again tariffs offensive aimed at compelling companies to base manufacturing inside the United States.
More than 90% of companies in the S&P 500 have reported earnings for their latest quarter, with the majority of companies reporting better-than-expected results. However, forecasts for earnings growth during the current quarter have been broadly cut in half for companies in the index. Many companies have pulled their forecasts for the full year, citing uncertainty around U.S. trade policy.
Markets were lifted early this week when the U.S. and China announced a 90-day pause in their trade war, but what will happen after that remains cloudy.
Inflation remains a major concern even after two sets of government data this week showed that prices came down further last month. Economists say that could change as the impact of current tariffs make their way through supply chains and delayed tariffs potentially go into effect.
On Thursday, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned that economies around the world could experience persistent supply shocks due to tariffs, potentially leading to higher prices for goods.
Also Thursday, like other U.S. companies struggling through Trump’s on-again-off-again rollout of tariffs, Walmart did not include a profit forecast and said it must raise prices due to higher costs caused by Trump’s tariffs.
Later Friday the University of Michigan offers up its latest consumer sentiment survey. American consumers have become increasingly pessimistic about their finances since Trump's tariff rollout began.
Elsewhere, in Europe at midday, Germany's DAX and the CAC 40 in Paris each added 0.6%. Britain's FTSE 100 advanced 0.4%.
In Asian trading, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 was nearly unchanged at 37,753.72 after the government reported that Japan's economy contracted at a faster rate than expected in the first quarter of the year. Exports fell and consumer spending was flat, according to the data which showed a contraction of 0.7% from a year earlier.
Hong Kong's Hang Seng dropped 0.5% to 23,345.05 while the Shanghai Composite Index fell 0.4% to 3,367.46.
E-commerce giant Alibaba tumbled 4.3% after the company's financial performance missed forecasts.
Seoul's Kospi picked up 0.2% to 2,626.87 and the S&P/ASX 200 in Australia added 0.6% to 8,343.70.
Taiwan's Taiex gained 0.5%.
In energy trading, U.S. benchmark crude oil picked up 15 cents to $61.77 per barrel. Brent crude, the international standard, rose 18 cents to $64.71 per barrel.
Jiang Junzhe And Matt Ott, The Associated Press
