U.S. stocks edged higher, with the Dow up 0.34%, the S&P 500 up 0.18% and the Nasdaq up 0.21% at 11:28 a.m. ET. AI optimism and hopes for Middle East negotiations supported sentiment, while inflation and interest-rate concerns capped gains.
Wall Street’s main indexes inched higher in choppy trading on Friday as AI optimism buoyed sentiment and oil prices eased while investors monitored efforts to end the Middle East conflict. Seven of the 11 S&P 500 sectors declined, offset by a 0.8% gain in technology; the S&P 500 and Nasdaq were set for weekly advances.
Microsoft rose 3.3% after unveiling new Copilot capabilities, including a coding tool and an always-on AI agent. Qualcomm gained 5.1%, Dell advanced 5%, and Nvidia was marginally higher. Meta eased 3.2%, trimming its weekly gain to about 13%.
A report that U.S. and Iranian negotiators continued exploring a phased path out of the war helped market sentiment. August core capital goods orders pointed to robust growth, while Brent crude remained above $100 a barrel and the 10-year Treasury yield stood at 5.2%. Traders saw a 66.4% chance of a Federal Reserve rate increase of at least 25 basis points in October, up from around 50% earlier in the week.
