Wall St clings to gains on trade hopes

US stocks gained on Friday, ahead of a long Memorial day weekend, after US President Donald Trump predicted a swift end to the ongoing trade war with China.

Trump said on Thursday that Huawei Technologies could also be included in the trade deal, while at the same time calling the Chinese telecommunications giant “very dangerous.”

However, no high-level talks have been scheduled since the last round of negotiations in Washington two weeks ago.

The S&P 500 index is on pace to end the week 1% lower, which would make it the third straight week of losses for the benchmark index, as markets worried that the trade war would result in a global economic slowdown.

“The markets seem to be struggling to hold on to gains right now because people don’t want to be too long heading into the holiday weekend,” said Marc Pfeffer, chief investment strategist at CLS Investments in Omaha, Nebraska.

Adding to concerns about a slowing broader economy, data showed that US-made capital goods fell more than expected in April.

“The positive trade narrative has trumped data today,” said Mike Dowdall, investment strategist for BMO Global Asset Management, in Chicago.

At 12:55 p.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 115.03 points, or 0.45%, at 25 605.50. The S&P 500 was up 9.31 points, or 0.33%, at 2,831.55 and the Nasdaq Composite was up 31.70 points, or 0.42%, at 7 659.99.

Technology shares, that were among the hardest hit this week, rose 0.53% boosted by gains in chipmaker Intel and iPhone maker Apple.

Financials gained 0.61%, as US treasury yields rose for the first time in three days.

However markets were off their session highs, with traders saying volatile trading and thin volumes were likely as market participants geared up for the long weekend.

Foot Locker Inc plunged 17.1%, the most on the S&P, after the footwear retailer, one of the biggest US retailers of Nike shoes, missed quarterly profit and same-store sales estimates. Shares of Nike dipped 0.2%.

Total System Services Inc jumped 13.4% after Bloomberg reported Global Payments has held preliminary tie-up talks with the payment solutions provider. Global Payments’ shares rose 5.5%.

Autodesk fell 4.5% after the software maker reported quarterly earnings below expectations.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.99-to-1 ratio on the NYSE and a 1.94-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P index recorded 36 new 52-week highs and 16 new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 33 new highs and 86 new lows.