NEW YORK (AFP) - Wall Street stocks rose on Friday (Aug 11), ending a three-day slide on worries about North Korea as investors stepped in to take advantage of a brief pullback in leading technology stocks.

The biggest winners were high-flying companies like Apple, Amazon and Microsoft, all of which won at least 1 per cent after falling with the broader market in the prior sessions.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.1 per cent to 21,858.32.

The broad-based S&P 500 added 0.1 per cent at 2,441.32, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 0.6 per cent to 6,256.56.

President Donald Trump kept the heat on North Korea, warning that the US military is "locked and loaded" in the event of a misstep by the totalitarian state.

Analysts described less unease than in prior days, even though the North Korea situation had not appreciably changed.

"Although there is all this rhetoric, there is a general feeling we are not going to come to war," said Karl Haeling of LBBW.

Haeling said the weakness this week likely also indicates investor concern at lofty stock valuations after a series of Wall Street records in recent weeks.

J.C. Penney became the latest retailer to suffer the consequences of weak earnings, diving 16.6 percent after reporting a US$62 million (S$84.5 million) loss in the second quarter.

Snapchat parent Snap slumped 14.1 per cent after the company reported a hefty quarterly loss and user growth that missed Wall Street expectations.