An earlier version of this article misstated the prospective weekly gains for the Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq Composite Index. The errors have been fixed.
Getty Images U.S. stocks traded mixed Friday, but still were on track to notch gains for the week, after President Trump cast doubt on earlier reports that the administration would agree to roll back import duties on China as part of a “phase-one” trade deal.
How are the major benchmarks performing?
The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.13% fell 42 points, or 0.15% to 27,631, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.07% was a half point lower, or 0.02%, at 3,084, while the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.30% gained 12 points, or 0.15%, at 8,447.
On Thursday, the Dow rose 182.24 points, or 0.66%, to a record 27,674.80, while the S&P 500 index gained 8.4 points, or 0.27%, to an all-time high of 3,085.18. The Nasdaq Composite Index added 23.89 points, or 0.28%, to 8,434.52, its second-highest close in history, according to Dow Jones Market Data.
For the week, the Dow was on pace to rise 1% while the S&P 500 is set for a 0.6% gain and the Nasdaq was poised for an advance of 0.7% over the five-session period.
What’s driving the market?
Stock markets pulled back slightly Friday amid growing doubts that the U.S. will agree to pare import duties in stages as a part of its partial China trade pact after President Trump told reporters he hasn’t yet approved such a measure.
Peter Navarro, a senior U.S. trade adviser, said late Thursday that there was no formal agreement in place and the final decision would lie with Trump, according to the Wall Street Journal.
But fresh clouds over trade talks appeared unlikely to upend the week’s overall stock market rally, which gained steam early Thursday after China’s Ministry of Commerce said that an agreement had been achieved to jointly eliminate some tariffs in stages as a part of the phase-one pact. Some of the cheer surrounding that news faded in afternoon trade amid reportsof “fierce internal opposition” within the White House, but not enough to derail weekly gains.
“There is a lot of noise that can distract people but when it comes down to it, when you set aside politics and social concerns, markets are driven by fundamentals,” Kevin Philip, managing director at Los Angeles-based Bel-Air Investment Advisors told MarketWatch.
“It’s really hard to have a recession, or some sort of crisis, when you have full employment, a friendly Fed and a government that’s lowering regulations and has lowered taxes,” he said.
Enthusiasm about the ability of the U.S. economy to keep chugging along, despite its record expansion, also has been filtering over to the Russell 2000 index RUT, +0.14%, the benchmark for smaller stocks, where a bullish “golden cross” price pattern is starting to take shape on the charts and may signal a firmer breakout for the index is on the horizon.
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The latest trade reports came as import and export trade data from China was better than expected, but reflected ongoing struggles for the world’s second-largest economy. Chinese trade data for October show imports fell a less-than-expected 6.4%, while exports, which had been expected to fall 3.9%, only slipped 0.9%.
“Nonetheless the numbers still paint a picture of an economy that is struggling to recover from an economic slowdown and the effects of the current trade impasse,” said Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets U.K. in a Friday research report.
Meanwhile U.S. consumers’ mood brightened in November according to the University of Michigan consumer sentiment index, which rose to 95.7 from 95.5 in October. Economists surveyed by MarketWatch had forecast a reading of 95.
Also on Friday, Federal Reserve Gov. Lael Brainard said the central bank can no longer ignore the economic “shocks” of climate change when formulating policy, while speaking at a San Francisco Fed summit devoted to the topic.
Which stocks are in focus?
Shares of Dow component Walt Disney Co. DIS, +3.44% were in focus after the media and entertainment giant late Thursday said it earned $1.05 billion, or $1.07 a share, compared with $2.32 billion, or $1.55 a share, in the year-ago period, while revenue rose 34% to $19.1 billion, from $14.3 billion a year ago. Shares rose nearly 3% Friday.
Gap Inc. GPS, -7.50% shares fell almost 7% after the retailer said its CEO Art Peck will step down and guided that fiscal year-end earnings will come in weaker than expected.
Shares of Chesapeake Energy Corp. CHK, +1.50% were being watched after the oil and natural gas company’s top executives bought a total of 125,000 shares on the dip below $1 a share.
Duke Energy Crop. DUK, -3.13% shares moved almost 3% lower after the utility reported third-quarter earnings that beat expectations, but revenue that fell shy.
Zillow Group Inc. Z, +12.05% reported Thursday evening sales that more than doubled in the third quarter from last year and a better-than-expected loss. Shares were up nearly 12% Friday.
Shares of Take-Two Interactive Software Inc. TTWO, -0.09% edged 0.75% higher Friday after the videogame publisher missed analysts forecasts for profits and revenue in the third quarter.
Shares of Slack Technologies, Inc. WORK, -0.36% edged to a new low in trade Friday morning of $19.70 per share, or about half the stock’s debut price of $38.50 per share on the New York Stock Exchange in June. It since drifted higher, but was still down 1.1%.
How are others assets trading?
The yield of the 10-year U.S. Treasury note TMUBMUSD10Y, +0.92% fell less than a basis point to 1.919% after reaching a three-month high on Thursday.
December gold GCZ19, -0.25% on Comex on Friday added to its recent slide for a weekly loss of 3.2% after settling at $1,462.90 an ounce, its sharpest loss in more than two years, according to FactSet data.
West Texas Intermediate crude for December delivery CLZ19, +0.49% ended up 0.2% at $57.24 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange, a weekly gain of 1.9%
The ICE U.S. dollar index DXY, +0.22%, a gauge of the greenback’s performance against six major rivals, was up 0.2%.
In Asia overnight, the China CSI 300 000300, -0.47% fell 0.4%, and the Shanghai Composite SHCOMP, -0.49% declined 0.5%. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index HSI, -0.70% fell 0.7%, while Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index NIK, +0.26% added 0.3%.
In Europe, the Stoxx Europe 600’s SXXP, -0.28% traded 0.3% lower.
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