NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Friday and trimming their losses from what’s been a shaky week. The bond market, which has been the center of Wall Street’s action, remains jumpy, but yields are not moving as much as earlier in the week and are helping to keep financial markets relatively calm.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was on track for just its second gain in the six days since setting its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 341 points, or 0.6%, as of 10:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.2% higher.
Ross Stores helped lead the way and climbed 4.1% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Jim Conroy said it saw both an increase in new customers and more interest from existing customers, while the off-price retailer at the same time benefited from refunds on tariffs.
Most U.S. companies have reported bigger profits for the spring than analysts expected, which has helped drive the stock market’s run to records recently. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.
The other big lever that helps set stock prices is interest rates, which have been much shakier.
After soaring through the summer and then hesitating earlier this week following a surprise announcement that the U.S. Treasury Department will repurchase more longer-term bonds, yields remained unsettled in the bond market on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.72% from 4.69% late Thursday after yo-yoing repeatedly between that level and 4.68% in the overnight and early-morning hours. The moves, though, were less sharp than earlier in the week, like when the 10-year yield lost 0.06 percentage points and the 30-year yield dropped nearly 0.10 percentage points on Wednesday.
Contributing to Friday’s moves was continued uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. That caused oil prices to flip between gains and losses, which directly affected Treasury yields because higher prices raise worries about inflation.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil was most recently up 0.1% at $93.81.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s move to increase the planned repurchases of Treasurys is bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies often rise when interest rates are lower and more money is flowing through the financial system.
Bitcoin has climbed above $77,000 from less than $63,000 a week ago. That helped stocks in the crypto industry lead Wall Street. Robinhood Markets jumped 11.9%, and Coinbase Global gained 9.2%.
The price of gold also climbed and topped $4,640 per ounce from less than $4,440 a week earlier. When Treasurys are no longer paying much more in yield, they get less of an advantage in investors’ eyes over gold, which pays its holders nothing.
That helped drive stocks of miners higher. Newmont climbed 2.4%, and Freeport-McMoRan jumped 5.6%.
They helped offset drop of 9.3% for OSI Systems, which sells security screening equipment to airports and other specialized electronic systems. It reported weaker revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected, and CEO Ajay Mehra said it was hurt by “the Middle East conflicts which shifted the timing of certain planned deliveries.”
Boston Beer sank 3.9% after the seller of Samuel Adams and Dogfish Head said its chief financial officer is leaving the company and announced an interim replacement.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Asia and Europe. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
