S&P 500 notches best weekly gain for 2015 as stocks surge for 2nd week

The S&P 500 posted its best weekly gain of 2015, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average notched its best week since early February, as U.S. stocks closed a rocky session Friday with modest gains.

Friday’s up-and-down trading follows days of global equity-market rallies, in part fueled by a sharp rebound in commodity prices.

Frank Cappelleri, executive director of institutional equities at Instinet LLC, noted that the last upswing between Aug. 26 to Sept. 17 included three separate days where the market gained at least 2%.

“We have yet to get a 2% daily advance this time. But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. A bigger collection of advances, even smaller ones, is more representative of a healthy uptrend, as opposed to one or two extremely large trading sessions,” Cappelleri said.

All three indexes posted two straight weeks of gains with the S&P 500 SPX, +0.07% edging up 1.46 points to close at 2,014.89 for a weekly rally of 3.3%. Information technology stocks led the gains, while energy and telecommunications services sectors were the biggest losers.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, +0.20% rose 33.74 points, or 0.2%, to finish at 17,084.49, to record its second best week of the year. The Nasdaq Composite COMP, +0.41% climbed 19.68 points, or 0.4%, to 4,830.47.

“An overall positive take on the economy from the Fed, combined with the poor jobs report, suggests that while rates may remain low for a while, the downside risk is limited,” said Bradford McMillan, chief investment officer at Commonwealth Financial Network

Still, comments from Dennis Lockhart, president of the Atlanta Fed, that a rate increase in October or December is a possibility may have discouraged some investors from actively buying, he said.

So far, earnings have been lackluster, with Alcoa Inc. AA, -6.81% posting disappointing results after the close of trading on Thursday.

The aluminum producer said it now expects 2015 automotive production growth in China to be in the range of 1% to 2%, down from a previous outlook of 5% to 8% growth. Shares were off 6.8%.

This week’s stock-market advances came after Fed minutes showed officials were reluctant to raise interest rates due to global risk concerns.

On the data front, U.S. import and export prices dipped in September, underlying continued weakness in demand. The prices the U.S. paid for imported goods fell by a seasonally adjusted 0.1% in September, much smaller than the 1.6% plunge in the prior month, the government said Friday. The price of U.S.-made goods exported to other nations declined by 0.7% last month.

The markets are likely to be driven by corporate earnings next week, said Myles Clouston, a senior director at Nasdaq. “Investors will be looking to see how slowing global growth impacted bellwethers,” he said.

Among large caps and blue chips slated to release results are J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. JPM, -0.32% Citigroup Inc. C, -0.52% General Electric Co. GE, +0.14% Netflix Inc. NFLX, -1.39% and Johnson & Johnson JNJ, +0.31% and Intel Corp. INTC, -1.17%

Stocks to watch: Shares of Gap Inc. GPS, -5.28% sank more than 5.3% after the fashion retailer reported late Thursday that total sales fell 1% in September, hit by a stronger dollar and weakness for its Banana Republic unit.

Tesla Motors Inc. TSLA, -2.66% dropped 2.7% after Barclays downgraded shares of the company.

Shares of International Paper Co. IP, +5.21% climbed 5.2% after it announced late Thursday is plans to sell its 55% stake in a joint Venue in China.

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Other markets: Asian shares rallied in the wake of the Fed minutes and hopes for lower U.S. rates for longer. The Shanghai Composite Index SHCOMP, +1.27% closed up 1.3%, while the Nikkei 225 index NIK, +1.64% gained 1.6%.

European stocks SXXP, +0.33% were also enjoying gains, driven by commodity-related stocks.

A weaker dollar propelled crude oil higher with West Texas Intermediate crude-oil prices CLX5, +0.12% rising 0.4% to $49.63 a barrel. Gold prices GCZ5, +0.99% climbed $11.60, or 0.1%, to $1,155.90 an ounce—its highest settlement since Aug. 21.

Source: MarketWatch