Wall Street drifts; S&P 500 on track for 3rd weekly gain
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is drifting Friday following another set of mixed reports on the economy, as the S&P 500 closes in on a third straight weekly gain.
The benchmark index was up 0.1% in afternoon trading after earlier flipping between small gains and losses. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 55 points, or 0.2%, at 26,679, as of 2 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was up 0.1%.
Trading was muted across markets, with stocks overseas, oil and gold also making relatively modest moves. Even China's market held relatively steady: Stocks in Shanghai inched up 0.1% following a run earlier this month where their average daily move was more than 2%.
Friday's meandering trading came as reports showed a weakening in U.S. consumer sentiment but a strengthening in home building activity. They're the latest in a stream of reports that have shown how uncertain the path is for the economy, as a continuing rise in coronavirus counts threatens to undo improvements that seemed to have taken root in the economy.
“The market just continues to try and get its finger on the pulse,” said James McCann, senior global economist at Aberdeen Standard Investments.
“The renewed spread of the virus and degree of community infection means the pace of recovery we’ve had is just not going to be able to hold up anymore,” he said. “A fairly decent chunk of U.S. activity is at risk.”
Amid all the uncertainty, roughly three in five stocks rose within the S&P 500.
BlackRock rose 3.5% for one of the larger gains in the S&P 500 after the investment firm reported a stronger profit for the spring than analysts expected. J.B. Hunt Transport Services also reported a bigger profit than Wall Street forecast, and it rose 2.9%.
On the losing end was Netflix, which...
