NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Friday and trimming their losses from what’s been a shaky week. The bond market, which has been the center of Wall Street’s action, remains jumpy, but yields are not moving as much as earlier in the week and are helping to keep financial markets relatively calm.
The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was on track for just its second gain in the six days since it set its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 250 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.3% higher.
Ross Stores helped lead the way and climbed 3.8% after reporting stronger profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Jim Conroy said it saw both an increase in new customers and more interest from existing customers, while the off-price retailer at the same time benefited from refunds on tariffs.
Most U.S. companies have reported bigger profits for the spring than analysts expected, which has helped drive the stock market’s run to records recently. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the long term.
The other big lever that helps set stock prices is interest rates, which have been much shakier.
After surging through the summer and then hesitating earlier this week following a surprise announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it will repurchase more longer-term bonds, yields held relatively steady in the bond market on Friday.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked up to 4.71% from 4.69% late Thursday. But it yo-yoed repeatedly between that level and 4.68% in the overnight and early-morning hours.
Contributing to the swings was continued uncertainty about when the war with Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. That caused oil prices to move between gains and losses, which directly affected Treasury yields because higher prices raise worries about inflation.
The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil added 0.4% to $94.09 after flipping repeatedly within a roughly $2 band.
One of the biggest beneficiaries of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s move to increase the planned repurchases of Treasurys is bitcoin. Cryptocurrencies often rise when interest rates are lower and more money is flowing through the financial system.
Bitcoin has climbed above $76,500 from less than $63,000 a week ago.
That helped stocks in the crypto industry lead Wall Street. Robinhood Markets climbed 8.8%, and Coinbase Global rose 7.8%.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Asia and Europe. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng rose 1.2%, and South Korea’s Kospi climbed 0.9% for two of the world’s bigger moves.
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AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Michelle Chapman contributed to this report.
