Wall Street capped a day of volatile trading with a late-afternoon buying spree that sent U.S. stock indexes to a mostly higher finish Friday.
Despite the eleventh-hour rally, the benchmark S&P 500 index ended with its second weekly loss in four weeks.
Gains in health care and energy companies powered the market higher.
The S&P 500 index rose 6.07 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,736.27. The Dow Jones industrial average gained 123.95 points, or 0.5 percent, to 25,413.22. The Nasdaq composite slid 11.16 points, or 0.2 percent, to 7,247.87. The Russell 2000 index of smaller companies picked up 3.41 points, or 0.2 percent, to 1,527.53.
The S&P 500, which finished higher for the second-straight day, ended the week with a loss of 1.6 percent.
The market got a brief boost after President Donald Trump expressed optimism that the U.S. and China will reach a deal to resolve their costly trade dispute. The remarks came as representatives of both countries have resumed talks.
Large retailers and media and communications companies were the laggards.
"The market and market participants are more unsettled now than they have been in years," said Tom Martin, senior portfolio manager with Globalt Investments. "We're that much further on in the cycle and you have these tariffs and trade wars that are really still in the very early stages."
Like much of this week, the market spent much of Friday veering between bouts of listless trading and modest swings.
"Investors are really trying to figure out how they want to be positioned based on the incoming information," Martin said. "It's not surprising to me that at this time of year, given what we've seen, that we're getting the intraday moves we're getting."
One of the day's market swings came as traders reacted to Trump's remarks on trade.
At the White House, speaking about the lingering trade dispute, the president said he hoped the U.S. could make a deal with China, though he also said that a list of about 140 trade concessions China submitted did not go far enough.
"I think a deal will be made," Trump said. "We'll find out very soon."
Soybean futures spiked after Trump's comments. Soybean prices have fallen sharply since this spring as the trade dispute with China led to a steep drop in China's purchases of U.S. soybeans. Soybean futures jumped from $8.83 to $8.92 a bushel after the remarks. They had traded as high as $10.78 a bushel in early March.
Troubled California power provider Pacific Gas and Electric Co. surged 37.5 percent to $24.40 after the president of the utility's state regulator said it was essential for a power company to have the financial strength to operate safely. The remark late Thursday by California Public Utilities Commission President Michael Picker appeared to reassure investors concerned that the company may face a torrent of costs related to the devastating wildfire in Northern California. There has been speculation that PG&E's equipment may have set off the blaze, which started Nov. 8 and has killed at least 56 people.
Chipmaker Nvidia led a sell-off in technology stocks. The company plunged 18.8 percent to $164.43 after saying it had a large number of unsold chips because of a big drop in mining of cryptocurrencies.
Retailers also weighed on the market. Nordstrom cratered 13.7 percent to $50.93 after the department store issued weak guidance for the full year. That disappointing outlook overshadowed the company's third-quarter results, which topped Wall Street's estimates.
Business on 11/17/2018