NEW YORK - U.S. stocks rose on Friday, led by technology companies, as a report on progress in U.S.-China trade talks lifted sentiment, pushing the S&P 500 to its best week since November.
Chipmakers, which tend to derive a large portion of their revenue from China, rose. The Philadelphia SE chip index climbed 2.9 percent while the S&P 500 technology index rose 1.2 percent. That followed a batch of weak data this week that lent support to the Federal Reserve’s dovish stance on future interest rate hikes, which has helped to lift stocks this year.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 138.93 points, or 0.54 percent, to 25,848.87, the S&P 500 gained 14 points, or 0.50 percent, to 2,822.48 and the Nasdaq Composite added 57.62 points, or 0.76 percent, to 7,688.53. The S&P 500 posted its best weekly gain since the end of November and Nasdaq had its best weekly gain so far this year. For the week, the S&P 500 was up 2.9 percent, the Nasdaq was up 3.8 percent, and the Dow was up 1.6 percent.
Facebook Inc shares were down 2.5 percent after the social media giant said late on Thursday that Chief Product Officer Chris Cox would be leaving the company. Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by a 1.63-to-1 ratio; on Nasdaq, a 1.54-to-1 ratio favored advancers.