US stocks end strong week with another winning session

NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks concluded a strong week on an upbeat note Friday (March 18) as markets monitored US-China talks on the Ukraine invasion and digested more hawkish commentary from Federal Reserve officials.

Analysts say the surge in stocks - which lifted the broad-based S&P 500 by more than 6 per cent - reflected bargain hunting after a grim start to the week.

Positive momentum drove Friday's action as well, during which equities picked up speed after opening the day lower.

"No one is going to step in front of the train," Briefing.com analyst Patrick O'Hare said.

"It's undeniably a really good week," he said, adding that he expects more volatility ahead.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average finished up 0.8 per cent at 34,754.93.

The broad-based S&P 500 won 1.2 per cent to 4,463.12, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index surged 2.1 per cent to 13,893.84.

US President Joe Biden warned Chinese leader Xi Jinping of the "consequences" for any backing of Russia in its war against Ukraine, the White House said following a two-hour meeting between the heads of state.

Chinese state television CCTV reported that Xi said the war was "in no one's interest" and that "state-to-state relations cannot go to the stage of military hostilities."

However, there was no direct Chinese criticism of the Kremlin.

Traders also were focused on comments from Fed governor Christopher Waller and St Louis Fed president James Bullard, both of whom advocated for more aggressive action from the central bank to contain inflation than the quarter-point rate increase agreed to on Wednesday.

Among individual companies, FedEx fell 4 per cent after reporting quarterly profits that lagged analyst expectations despite delivery rate increases that lifted revenues. However, the company said the Omicron variant of Covid-19 had dented demand.