Wall Street drifts at the end of a bumpy week

The S&P 500 was higher 0.6% in afternoon trading. Despite its big swing earlier this week, it is still on track to close April with an edge. Markets churn amid unanswered questions about where the economy and corporate profits are headed.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 213 points, or 0.6%, at 34,039 by midday Eastern time, while the Nasdaq Composite was higher 0.3%.

exxon mobil After rising 2.2%, the market was making some of the heaviest moves. It reported stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than forecast.

Intel gained 4.4% after reporting a smaller loss than expected and stronger revenue for the latest quarter. Mondelez International, the food giant behind Oreo and Ritz, soared 4.4% after topping Wall Street’s estimates. It also raised its forecast for revenue and earnings for the full year.

They helped counteract the 3.9% decline Amazon, which heavily pressured the market despite reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than expected. Analysts pointed to a slowdown in revenue growth in its AWS cloud computing business.

Snap plunged 17.8% after its revenue for the latest quarter fell short of forecasts. Pinterest also fell sharply, down 17.4%, despite reporting stronger-than-expected results. Analysts pointed to its growth forecast for the current quarter, which was slower than some had expected.

Wall Street has focused heavily on what CEOs are saying about their upcoming trends, given how much uncertainty there is about where the economy and interest rates are headed. The economy is slowing down under the weight of very high interest rates aimed at bringing high inflation under control.

Most companies have outperformed expectations so far this reporting season, but the bar was set pretty low for the first three months of the year. Wall Street is worried that continued weakness could lead to a third straight decline in earnings for S&P 500 companies in the second quarter of the year.

Recent economic reports have raised expectations on Wall Street that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates again at its next meeting next week. Some traders are also betting on the possibility that the Fed could raise rates again in June.

A report on Friday said inflation measure The Fed likes to use the close to expectations for March, but it’s well above target.

Compensation for workers also grew more during the first three months of the year than economists expected. While this is welcome news for workers still trying to keep up with rising prices at the registers, the Fed fears it could help further compound high inflation.

Other reports said business sentiment in the Chicago area continued to be weak, but not as expected, while there was little change in sentiment among consumers in April.

“Bottom line, inflation is still above target, and the Fed looks set to raise interest rates again next week — and keep them higher for a while,” said Mike Lowengart, head of model portfolio construction at Morgan Stanley’s Global Investment Office. Leave it level.” ,

Higher rates counter inflation by slowing down the entire economy and hurting investment prices. This year many investors are preparing for a possible recession.

The Fed raised its key overnight interest rate to its highest level since before the Great Depression of 2007-09, well above its record low, following a hike since early last year. Together, they have already slowed the economy’s growth to an estimated 1.1% annual rate earlier this year.

They have also caused cracks in the banking system, with the second and third largest US bank failures in history rocking global markets last month. Investors are looking for other weak links, and the spotlight has been particularly harsh on First Republic Bank.

Its stock roughly halved on Tuesday after it disclosed details of how much its customers had deposited. First Republic fell almost in half again on Friday and is down about 79% for the week.

The Federal Reserve released a report on Friday Blaming the Silicon Valley Bank Failure on a combination of poor bank management, weak regulations and lax government supervision. The collapse of that bank last month sent industry turmoil.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 3.44% from 3.52% late Thursday. It helps set rates for mortgages and other important loans. The two-year yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, fell to 4.05% from 4.08%.

In markets overseas, stock indices were mixed in Europe and mostly higher in Asia.

Japan’s Nikkei 225 stock index jumped 1.4% and the Japanese yen fell against the dollar. In its first policy meeting under its new governor, Kazuo Ueda, the Bank of Japan kept its key policy rate at negative 0.1%, even as inflation in the country has surpassed its target.

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AP Business Writers Elaine Kurtenbach and Matt Ott contributed.

The text of this story is published from a wire agency feed without any modification. Only the headline has been changed.