New York — U.S. stocks bounced back and the dollar hit a two-month peak on Friday as solid economic data and a spate of positive earnings reports brought buyers back to the market.
A host of upbeat quarterly reports from a broad range of U.S. companies, including Google parent Alphabet Inc, Intel Corp, Starbucks Corp and McDonald’s Corp helped allay disappointment over Amazon.com’s miss.
U.S. economic growth slowed less than analysts expected in the second quarter as consumer spending surged, more than making up for a drop in imports and inventory build-up.
The GDP report was “slightly better than expected but certainly not enough to change the path of the Fed meeting by the end of this month,” said Art Hogan, chief market strategist at National Securities in New York. “This is just what the market needed, not so soft that the economy is slowing down precipitously and not so strong that the Fed is going to reverse course.”
Investors now look ahead to the coming week, when negotiators arrive in Beijing to resume talks aimed toward resolving the long-running U.S.-China trade war and the Federal Reserve’s policymakers convene, which is expected to culminate in the first interest rate cut in a decade.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.96 points, or 0.01%, to 27,142.94, the S&P 500 gained 13.26 points, or 0.44%, to 3,016.93 and the Nasdaq Composite added 64.28 points, or 0.78%, to 8,302.82.
A rally in media stocks pushed European shares higher, in a rebound from Thursday’s drop after the European Central Bank left interest rates unchanged and toned down monetary easing expectations.
The pan-European STOXX 600 index rose 0.29% and MSCI’s gauge of stocks across the globe gained 0.13%.
Bucking the trend, emerging-market assets were on track to end the week lower, as investors shied away from riskier assets after ECB President Mario Draghi gave a rosier-than-expected economic outlook.
Emerging market stocks fell 0.49%. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan closed 0.69% lower, while Japan’s Nikkei dropped 0.45%.
The dollar index, which measures the greenback against other world currencies, climbed to a two-month high, setting a course for a second straight weekly advance.
The dollar index rose 0.14%, with the euro down 0.12% to $1.1132.
The Japanese yen weakened 0.05% versus the greenback at 108.71 per dollar, while sterling was last trading at $1.24, down 0.43% on the day.
U.S. Treasuries were steady after yields briefly rose on the better-than-expected GDP report.
Benchmark 10-year notes last fell 2/32 in price to yield 2.0808%, compared with 2.074% late on Thursday.
The 30-year bond last rose 6/32 in price to yield 2.5951%, compared with 2.603% late on Thursday.
The positive economic data helped keep oil prices in check, but crude is still on track for a weekly increase in the face of Middle East tensions.
U.S. crude fell 0.27% to $55.87 per barrel and Brent was last at $63.24, down 0.24% on the day.
Spot gold added 0.5% to $1,420.63 an ounce.
Copper lost 0.60% to $5,971.00 a tonne.
Three-month aluminum on the London Metal Exchange lost 1.40% to $1,800.50 a tonne.
