US: Stocks end with weekly gain after volatility

[NEW YORK] Wall Street stocks finished a volatile week on a muted note Friday as markets monitored ongoing travails around Evergrande and rising supply chain concerns following disappointing Nike results.

All three major indices ended near flat in a marked shift from Monday's rout, which was followed by winning sessions later in the week that left the market higher at week's close.

Analysts pointed to lingering worries about Evergrande, the Chinese property giant that had not yet made a large interest payment by a Thursday deadline, according to The Wall Street Journal.

Investors are also mindful of the increased backlogs in global shipping infrastructure that prompted Nike to trim its sales forecast on Thursday night.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished at 34,798.00, up 0.1 per cent.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.2 per cent at 4,455.48 to finish the week up 0.5 per cent, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index lost less than 0.1 per cent to end at 15,047.70.

Among individual companies, Nike dropped 6.3 per cent as the sports giant signalled it expects supply chain problems to continue to dent sales in the coming quarters.

Operations have also been hindered by government restrictions in Vietnam and Indonesia due to Covid-19 that have cut into product availability.

Costco Wholesale jumped 3.3 per cent as it reported a jump in profits based on a 17.5 per cent increase in quarterly sales to US$61.4 billion.

Carnival climbed 3.0 per cent as it reported increased bookings in the second half of 2022 on a much-improved environment for travel, despite reporting a US$2.8 billion loss in the just-finished quarter.

AFP