Financial Markets                      05/10 15:24

   

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks coasted to the close of another winning week on 
Friday.

   The S&P 500 rose 8.60 points, or 0.2%, to 5,222.68 to finish a third 
straight winning week following its mostly miserable April. It had been on pace 
for a bigger gain in the morning, but that mostly disappeared following a 
discouraging report on U.S. consumer sentiment.

   The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 125.08 points, or 0.3%, to 
39,512.84, and the Nasdaq composite edged down by 5.40, or less than 0.1%, to 
16,340.87.

   The S&P 500 has climbed back within 0.6% of its record on revived hopes that 
the Federal Reserve may deliver cuts to interest rates this year. A flood of 
stronger-than-expected reports on profits from big U.S. companies has also 
helped support the market.

   Gen Digital jumped 15.3% after reporting better profit for the first three 
months of 2024 than analysts expected. The cyber safety company, whose brands 
include Norton and LifeLock, also authorized a program to buy back up to $3 
billion of its stock. It joined a lengthening list of companies announcing big 
such programs, which helps goose per-share earnings for investors.

   Novavax nearly doubled and shot 98.7% higher after announcing a deal with 
Sanofi that could be worth more than $1.2 billion. The agreement includes a 
license to co-commercialize Novavax's COVID-19 vaccine worldwide, with some 
exceptions. Novavax also reported a slightly smaller loss for the latest 
quarter than analysts expected.

   They helped offset a drop of 11% for Akamai Technologies, which topped 
expectations for profit but fell short for revenue. The cloud-computing, 
security and content delivery company also gave some financial forecasts for 
the upcoming year that fell short of analysts' expectations.

   It said the strengthening of the U.S. dollar's value against other 
currencies is slicing into its business, along with slowing traffic growth 
across the industry. That helped overshadow its own announcement of a program 
to buy back up to $2 billion of its stock.

   In the bond market, Treasury yields rose following the discouraging 
preliminary report from the University of Michigan.

   It suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is weakening by much more than 
economists expected, and the drop was large enough to be "statistically 
significant and brings sentiment to its lowest reading in about six months," 
according to Joanne Hsu, director of the survey of consumers.

   Potentially even more discouraging is that U.S. consumers were forecasting 
inflation of 3.5% in the upcoming year, up from their forecast of 3.2% a month 
earlier. If such expectations spiral higher, the fear is that it could lead to 
a vicious cycle that worsens inflation.

   It highlights how some companies have recently been describing increasing 
struggles among their customers, particularly their lower-income ones.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.50% from 4.46% late Thursday. 
But the movement was still relatively modest compared with its drop from 4.70% 
late last month.

   Markets may remain on hold until Wednesday's highly anticipated update on 
U.S. inflation at the consumer level, according to rates strategists at Bank of 
America. Traders are still largely penciling in one or two cuts to interest 
rates by the Federal Reserve this year, according to data from CME Group.

   "Right now, the market is in a good mood thanks to a decent earnings season 
and a Fed that has a high bar to hiking," according to Brian Jacobsen, chief 
economist at Annex Wealth Management. "That mood can change quickly."

   Last week, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell helped pull yields lower 
after saying the central bank remains closer to cutting its main interest rate 
than hiking it, despite a string of stubbornly high readings on inflation this 
year. The Fed has been keeping its main interest rate at the highest level in 
more than two decades in hopes of getting high inflation fully under control.

   A cooler-than-expected jobs report at the end of last week, meanwhile, 
suggested the U.S. economy could pull off the tricky balancing act of staying 
solid enough to avoid a bad recession but not so strong that it worsens 
inflation.

   In stock markets abroad, London's FTSE 100 rose 0.6% after the government 
reported the U.K. economy bounced back to growth at the start of the year. The 
performance was better than expected, and it snapped two straight quarters 
where the economy shrank.

   In Japan, Tokyo's Nikkei 225 rose 0.4% after a report showed strong auto 
exports whittled down the nation's trade deficit and it racked up solid returns 
on overseas investments.

   ___

   AP Business Writers Yuri Kageyama and Matt Ott contributed.

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