US stocks finish higher again, extending rebound
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Traders working on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange in the US in April.
PHOTO: REUTERS
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NEW YORK – Wall Street stocks finished higher on April 25, extending a rebound following a tonal shift from US President Donald Trump on tariffs and the US Federal Reserve.
Two of the three major stock indices won solid gains, although analysts described caution ahead of next week’s heavy schedule of corporate earnings and economic data.
The “soft data has been showing very negative signs for the economy, but it hasn’t really gone through to the hard data”, said Ms Victoria Fernandez, of Crossmark Global Investments.
Reports next week on the labour market and other key indicators will show if “we are truly weakening or not”, Ms Fernandez said.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average eked out a 0.1 per cent gain at 40,113.50.
The broad-based S&P 500 climbed 0.7 per cent to 5,525.21, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.3 per cent to 17,382.94.
After tumbling on April 21 following Mr Trump’s harsh criticism of US Fed chairman Jerome Powell, markets have rebounded since the US President said on April 22 he has no intention of firing him.
The administration has also adopted a more conciliatory tone on trade talks with China, although the state of talks between Washington and Beijing remains murky.
Beijing has said there are no active negotiations with the US, while Mr Trump claimed to have spoken with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.
Among individual companies, Google parent Alphabet rose 1.5 per cent after reporting a profit of US$34.5 billion (S$45 billion) in the recently ended quarter, powered by its cloud computing and artificial intelligence operations.
But Intel dropped 6.7 per cent due to disappointment over the company’s second-quarter outlook. AFP
