Stocks push higher on Wall Street, on track for weekly gain

BANGKOK — Stocks rose in early trading on Wall Street Friday and put the major indexes on track for a strong finish in a week that opened with a stumble.

The S&P 500 index rose 0.4% as of 10:02 a.m. Eastern time and is hovering around the record high it set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 122 points, or 0.4%, to 34.946 and the Nasdaq rose 0.2%.

The major indexes are all on track to close the week higher, essentially brushing off a sharp sell-off on Monday that trimmed 1.6% from the benchmark S&P 500.

Banks led the broad gains as bond yields rose, which they rely on to charge more lucrative interest on loans. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.28% from 1.26% late Thursday. The benchmark yield has recovered from its low yields earlier in the week, but is still trading at relatively low levels given that the economy is in a recovery.

Communication, technology and health care companies also made solid gains. Energy companies lagged the broader market as crude oil prices edged lower.

The sell-off early in the week was partly due to jitters about the virus pandemic and whether variants rapidly spreading across the country and world will crimp the economic recovery. Stocks have been making steady gains, but trading has been choppy on a week-to-week basis as investors try to figure out how the recovery will continue to play out and what the economy might look like after the pandemic recedes.

Investors are monitoring the latest round of corporate earnings and forecasts for a clearer picture of how companies are faring as people try to get back to activities that were normal before the pandemic shutdown businesses, workplaces and social gatherings. The reports have so far been mostly solid.

American Express jumped 3.5% as spending at restaurants, shops and entertainment venues fueled a second-quarter revenue surge and solid profits. Twitter rose 1.2% after blowing past Wall Street’s second-quarter profit forecasts on growing advertising demand.

Snap, the parent company of social media app Snapchat, soared 21.4% after reporting results that were much better than expected.

Intel, which also reported solid second-quarter earnings, fell 4.8% over concerns that supply chain problems could hurt the company. Supply problems are causing a chip shortage worldwide that is impacting a variety of industries while demand continues rising.

European stocks rose, while stocks in Asia were mixed.