Wall Street stocks withstood some prominent earnings disappointments and another bout of Chinese market volatility this week to finish higher.
The broad-based S&P 500 led the way, tacking on 24.27 points (1.17 percent) at 2,103.92.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 121.93 points (0.69 percent) to 17,690.46, while the tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index gained 39.65 (0.78 percent) to 5,128.28.
Wall Street appeared headed for another dismal week on Monday when an 8.48 percent drop in the Shanghai exchange, the market’s heaviest loss in more than eight years, sparked a big sell-off in the US.
However, Shanghai avoided such deep losses in subsequent days, even as the Chinese index closed the week down more than 10 percent.
“What happens in China gets more nerve-wracking every day,” Hugh Johnson of Hugh Johnson Advisors said. “The more you see commodities prices decline ... the more you recognize that’s linked to what happens in China.”
A two-day US Federal Reserve monetary policy meeting concluded on Wednesday with a policy statement that kept the federal funds interest rate unchanged at near-zero and gave no fresh clues on the timing of a long-awaited rate hike.
The statement kept alive the chance of a rate hike perhaps as soon as next month, yet also suggested the possibility of a later time-frame.
Stocks added to gains in the hours after its release.
“The Fed, as usual, is keeping its options open,” Pantheon Macroeconomics economist Ian Shepherdson said.
In the week’s most prominent economic report, the US Department of Commerce estimated second-quarter growth at a solid 2.3 percent, slightly below the 2.5 percent consensus estimate, but the strongest pace since the third quarter of last year’s 4.3 percent.
The government also upgraded its appraisal of the first quarter to 0.6 percent growth from a 0.2 percent contraction.
Several prominent technology names suffered big sell-offs after earnings reports disappointed investors. Social networking stocks LinkedIn Corp, Twitter Inc and Yelp Inc all experienced double-digit routs after their reports suggested dimmer-than-expected growth prospects.
Whole Foods Market Inc also suffered a drop on this scale after executives said sales had been dented from its acknowledgement that it had overcharged customers in New York City stores.
Petroleum-linked stocks were another weak area, with both ExxonMobil Corp and Chevron Corp closing the week out sharply lower after reporting big earnings drops on low oil prices.
However, other companies won accolades from the market.
Among tech companies, Expedia Inc soared after earnings quadrupled following acquisitions. Biotech companies Amgen Inc and Gilead Sciences Inc also did well.
Among older companies, Ford Motor Co and UPS Inc gained on better-than-expected results, while Pfizer Inc also rose after lifting its profit forecast.
The week’s biggest deal was the purchase of Allergan PLC’s generic drug business by Israeli giant Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd for US$40.5 billion.
Next week’s earnings calendar includes reports from Walt Disney Co, Time Warner Inc and 21st Century Fox Inc. Auto companies are scheduled to release US sales data for last month.
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