By Lisa Pauline Mattackal and Purvi Agarwal
(Reuters) -Wall Street’s main indexes were on track for weekly gains on Friday, though they struggled for direction on the day as investors navigated contradictory messages on U.S.-China trade and a mixed spate of corporate earnings.
The overall mood was jittery after U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview he would consider it a “total victory” if the country had tariffs as high as 50% on foreign imports a year from now, and added that his administration is talking with China to strike a tariff deal.
Beijing, however, continues to dispute that negotiations are taking place. The conflicting headlines offset some optimism after China granted some U.S. imports exemptions from its hefty 125% tariffs, according to businesses notified.
“The negotiations between the U.S. and China are probably the toughest negotiations of any (of) the trade negotiations that are on the table … you shouldn’t expect a smooth immediate resolution,” said Jason Pride, chief of investment strategy and research at Glenmede.
A few upbeat corporate earnings helped limit losses. Heavyweight Alphabet rose 1.9% after the Google-parent reported upbeat first-quarter results, while Charter Communications leapt 11% to the top of the S&P 500 after its results.
Despite the day’s volatility, major indexes were set for strong weekly gains after notching three back-to-back sessions of gains on Thursday.
The S&P 500 is so far up 3.7% for the week to date, while the Nasdaq Composite and the Dow have gained 5.6% and 1.7%, respectively, driven also by hopes of de-escalating U.S.-China trade tensions and Trump’s backtracking on threats to fire the head of the Federal Reserve.
However, sentiment remains highly cautious amid trade uncertainty, indications of a souring economic outlook and hits to company earnings from tariffs.
The benchmark index remains below levels prior to the April 2 announcement, and is nearly 11% off its February record close.
“Traders are going into the weekend knowing that there’s a strong probability that President Trump will say something market-moving, yet must wait until the markets reopen to react,” said David Morrison, senior market analyst at TradeNation.
U.S. consumer sentiment ebbed for a fourth straight month in April, the University of Michigan Surveys of Consumers showed.
At 11:34 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 219.83 points, or 0.55%, to 39,873.57, the S&P 500 lost 0.10 points, or 0.00%, to 5,484.67 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 69.76 points, or 0.41%, to 17,236.20.
