The major U.S. stock indexes capped a holiday shortened week with slight gains Thursday, reversing some of the modest losses from a day earlier.
The S&P 500 gained 4.58 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,905.03.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 110 points, or 0.4 percent, to 26,559.54. The Nasdaq composite inched 1.98 points higher, or less than 0.1 percent, to 7,998.06.
The Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks dropped 1.85 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,565.75.
The marginal upward move was not enough to keep the benchmark S&P 500 index from snapping a string of three straight weekly gains.
Industrial sector stocks paved the way higher as traders welcomed solid earnings from Snap-on, Honeywell International, United Rentals and Union Pacific. Technology companies also notched solid gains, offsetting losses by financial and energy stocks.
Traders gave a strong reception to Pinterest and Zoom Video Communications, two technology companies that made their widely anticipated stock market debuts. Cigarette makers fell on news that the U.S. Senate's majority leader plans to introduce legislation to raise the minimum age to buy tobacco products from 18 to 21.
Investors remain focused on company earnings as they look for clues about the health of the U.S. economy and the prospects for better corporate profits, a key driver of stock market gains. Analysts expect the wave of first quarter results for S&P 500 companies being reported over the next few weeks will be the weakest in nearly three years.
"The big takeaway over the past week is the U.S. is doing OK and [company] outlooks are initially reasonable," said Ben Phillips, chief investment officer at EventShares.
Major European stock indexes finished mostly higher.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10 year Treasury fell to 2.56 percent from 2.59 percent late Wednesday.
The U.S. stock indexes struggled to maintain momentum for much of the day before locking in slight gains by the end of the day.
U.S. stock markets are closing today in observance of Good Friday.
The market has been charting an uneven course all week as traders wade through company earnings reports.
Even so, stocks are still holding on to blockbuster gains after rebounding from a steep sell-off late last year. The S&P 500 remains within 1 percent of its most recent all-time high on September 20.
The Federal Reserve helped spur the market's rebound early this year when it said that it may not raise interest rates at all in 2019.
Still, investors are looking at company earnings as they divine which direction the stocks will churn next.
"We haven't really gotten to the meat of earnings season and (investors) want to see some really positive guidance and they want to make sure earnings are growing," said Karyn Cavanaugh, senior markets strategist at Voya Investment Management. "We have a high bar to jump over from last year, because in the first quarter we had that one-time tax bump."
Business on 04/19/2019