Wall Street goes up while business optimism prevents data weakness

NEW YORK (Reuters) – The S & P 500 and the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday recorded a series of three-day losses, optimistic about the prospect of a trade deal between the United States and China, which have helped to counter the disappointing figures of the US and Chinese manufacturing industry.

The Nasdaq has had its longest run of weekly earnings since the end of 1999.

Following the announcement by President Donald Trump last weekend of a delay in raising tariffs on Chinese imports, Bloomberg announced on Thursday that a summit between Trump and his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping for the signing of a final trade agreement could take place as early as mid-March.

"Optimism about trade resolution outweighs the weakening of economic data," said Ryan Detrick, senior market strategist at LPL Financial in Charlotte, North Carolina.

A private survey showed that Chinese factory activity contracted for the third consecutive month in February, albeit at a slower pace, indicating a slight improvement in domestic demand while many stimulus measures have been taken since the end of last year.

ISM data also showed that US manufacturing activity in February fell to its lowest level since November 2016, and the University of Michigan survey showed that consumer sentiment fell short of expectations for the US. month.

Detrick said despite weak data, investors hoped a US-China trade deal would improve global growth prospects.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average index rose 110.32 points, or 0.43%, to 26,026.32 points, the S & P 500 19.2 points, or 0.69%, to 2,803 , 69 and the Nasdaq Composite added 62.82 points, or 0.83%, to 7 595.35.

Nate Thooft, global head of asset allocation at Manulife Asset Management in Boston, said Friday that technical investors would see this close above this "auspicious" level.

The index closed at 4.2% below its September record. It has risen 11.8% since the beginning of the year, fueled by commercial hopes and the conservative stance of the Federal Reserve on interest rates.

For the week, the S & P rose 0.4%, the Dow fell 0.02% and the Nasdaq 0.9%.

Of the 11 main sectors of the S & P 500, eight were winners that day. The health care sector grew 1.4%, the largest increase and was supported by companies such as health insurer UnitedHealth Group, which rebounded after falling for much of the year. the week.

The consumer discretionary sector grew 0.9%, the biggest gain for Amazon.com.

Foot Locker shares rose 5.9%, after outperforming comparable quarterly store sales and contributed 1.9% to Nike Inc. shares, the second largest increase sector.

Gap Inc. has jumped 16%, making it the biggest percentage of the S & P index, after announcing that it would separate its more successful Old Navy brand from nearly 230 Gap stores.

The energy sector rose 1.8% despite the drop in oil prices. [O/R]

A report by the US Department of Commerce showed that inflationary pressures remained under control, which, along with the slowdown in national and global economic growth, gave more credence to the Federal Reserve's "patient" stance on rising inflation rates. interest this year.

Increasing issues outnumbered declining issues at the NYSE with a ratio of 1.79 to 1; on Nasdaq, a ratio of 1.86 to 1 favored progress.

The S & P 500 has recorded 54 new highs in 52 weeks and no new lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 92 new highs and 29 new lows.

The volume of US trade amounted to 7.95 billion shares, against 7.27 billion on average for the last 20 trading days.