The China Mail - US stocks extend rally as market eyes busy calendar next week

The upbeat session reflected a continuation of the market's constructive trend after President Donald Trump said Tuesday he has no intention of firing Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell.

The administration has also adopted a more conciliatory tone on trade talks with China, although the state of play between Washington and Beijing remains murky.

Beijing has said there are no active negotiations with the United States, while Trump claimed to have spoken with Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

TIME Magazine wrote Friday that Trump said in an interview he was still convinced tariffs were necessary and that he would "consider it a 'total victory' if the US still has tariffs as high as 50 percent on foreign imports a year from now."

City Index and FOREX.com analyst Fawad Razaqzada called the comments "an aggressive reminder that underscores his protectionist trade agenda, even if he has promised to reduce tariffs on Beijing significantly."

He added that the comments "probably caused the mild selling" trend.

But US stocks recovered from early losses and two of the three major indices posted solid gains, with the S&P 500 finishing up 0.7 percent.

Europe's main markets ended higher as did most Asian markets.

Sentiment was boosted by reports on Friday that China may exempt some US goods from its hefty retaliatory tariffs.

"While tariffs are unlikely to go away completely, any easing of the trade war will be lapped up by financial markets," said Russ Mould, investment director at AJ Bell.

Equity markets "are also benefitting from strong earnings reports," said Kathleen Brooks, research director at trading group XTB.

"Google reported earnings that smashed expectations last night," she added.

Google-parent Alphabet posted earnings that exceeded expectations for the recently ended quarter, driven by its cloud computing and artificial intelligence operations.

In Asia, Tokyo jumped almost two percent by the close following Japanese media reports that a second round of trade talks in Washington was set for May 1.

The discussions will be closely watched as a barometer for efforts by other countries seeking tariff relief.

Chinese stock indices ended the week fairly steady, as China's top leaders urged more support for the economy and opposed "unilateral bullying" in global trade, according to a readout of a meeting published by state media Friday.

Seoul jumped one percent after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said a trade "understanding" between South Korea and the United States could be reached by next week.

Analysts are beginning to look ahead to next week's heavy calendar of earnings and US economic data.

The "soft data has been showing very negative signs for the economy, but it hasn't really gone through to the hard data," said Victoria Fernandez of Crossmark Global Investments.

Reports next week on the labor market and other key indicators will show if "we are truly weakening or not," Fernandez said.

- Key figures at 2030 GMT -

New York - Dow: UP 0.1 percent at 40,113.50 (close)

New York - S&P 500: UP 0.7 percent at 5,525.21 (close)

New York - Nasdaq Composite: UP 1.3 percent at 17,382.94 (close)

London - FTSE 100: UP 0.1 percent at 8,415.25 (close)

Paris - CAC 40: UP 0.5 percent at 7,536.26 (close)

Frankfurt - DAX: UP 0.8 percent at 22,242.45 (close)

Tokyo - Nikkei 225: UP 1.9 percent at 35,705.74 (close)

Hong Kong - Hang Seng Index: UP 0.3 percent at 21,980.74 (close)

Shanghai - Composite: DOWN 0.1 percent at 3,295.06 (close)

Euro/dollar: DOWN at $1.1359 from $1.1390 on Thursday

Pound/dollar: DOWN at $1.3314 from $1.3342

Dollar/yen: UP at 143.69 yen from 142.63 yen

Euro/pound: DOWN at 85.31 pence from 85.37 pence

West Texas Intermediate: UP 0.4 percent at $63.02 per barrel

Brent North Sea Crude: UP 0.5 percent at $66.87 per barrel

burs-jmb/des

B.Clarke--ThChM