US: Wall Street finishes up as stimulus talks continue

[NEW YORK] US stocks rose on Friday and the S&P 500 and Nasdaq registered their biggest weekly percentage gains since July as optimism over more federal fiscal aid grew.

Talks were expected to continue on a Covid-19 stimulus package, even though US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin failed on Friday to reach agreement.

Mr Mnuchin floated a new proposal Friday afternoon, but an aide for Mrs Pelosi said it lacked a broad plan to contain the pandemic.

Recent trading on Wall Street has been dictated by headlines on fiscal aid, with the three main indexes tumbling on Tuesday after US President Donald Trump called off negotiations. He has since indicated he was willing to resume discussions.

"The market's reacting well to Trump's sudden turnaround in terms of a support package," said Tim Ghriskey, chief investment strategist at Inverness Counsel in New York.

"A lot of this has been politics, but a lot of people believe the economy really needs some economic support here, so that's a good thing."

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The S&P 500 technology shares rose 1.5 per cent, and the sector gave the S&P 500 its biggest boost. The small-cap Russell 2000 index climbed 6.4 per cent for the week, posting its biggest percentage gain since early June.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 161.39 points or 0.6 per cent to 28,586.9, the S&P 500 gained 30.31 points or 0.9 per cent to 3,477.14 and the Nasdaq Composite added 158.96 points or 1.4 per cent to 11,579.94.

For the week, the S&P 500 rose 3.8 per cent and the Nasdaq climbed 4.6 per cent, their biggest weekly percentage gains since July. The Dow added 3.3 per cent, its biggest weekly gain since August.

Strategists say investors have also begun to digest the possibility of Democratic candidate Joe Biden winning the Nov 3 presidential election after a fractious debate last month led to a jump in his lead over Mr Trump in several national polls.

Xilinx Inc surged 14.1 per cent after a report said Advanced Micro Devices Inc was in talks to buy the chipmaker in a deal valued at more than US$30 billion.

General Electric Co rose 2.9 per cent as a report said Goldman Sachs reinstated coverage on the US industrial conglomerate with a "buy" rating, saying the company will emerge stronger from the Covid-19 pandemic.

The S&P 500 energy index fell 1.6 per cent following recent gains.

Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.30-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.42-to-1 ratio favoured advancers.

The S&P 500 posted 76 new 52-week highs and one new low; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 141 new highs and 18 new lows.

Volume on US exchanges was 8.92 billion shares, compared with the 9.76 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.

REUTERS