Roundup: U.S. stocks post weekly gains amid bullish trade outlook, mixed economic data

NEW YORK, March 30 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks wrapped up the Week on an upbeat note, as the market was buoyed by a promising outlook on global Trade, a less inverted yield curve, and investors digested a batch of mixed economic data.

In the Week ending March 29, the Dow rose 1.66 percent, the SP 500 was up 1.21 percent, and the Nasdaq increased 1.13 percent.

This Week marked decent trading sessions for the market with a mixed start yet a high end. On Friday, the three major indices ended higher, as investors have kept a close eye on updates regarding global Trade and digested encouraging economic data.

Friday extended solid gains throughout the day, as investor sentiment got an uplift by growing Trade optimism and positive consumer data.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 211.22 points, or 0.82 percent, to 25,928.68. The SP 500 increased 18.96 points, or 0.67 percent, to 2,834.40. The Nasdaq Composite Index rose 60.16 points, or 0.78 percent, to 7,729.32.

Shares of U.S. manufacturing giant Caterpillar and Boeing, both sensitive to global Trade, rose nearly 2.4 percent and nearly 1.9 percent respectively.

Shares of Lyft surged over 8.7 percent, after the U.S. ride-hailing firm started trading on the public market on Friday, marking the first debut in a wave of heavyweight tech companies expected to go public this year.

Yet shares of Comcast fell nearly 1.1 percent, as Royal Bank of Canada downgraded the U.S. telecommunications conglomerate's stock to "sector perform" from "outperform," due to lower expectations for broadband and video subscribers.

The U.S. yield curve inversion has been narrowed since Thursday, as the 10-year Treasury bill yield bounced back, while the three-month note rate has declined for most of the trading sessions.

Investors have been largely rattled by an inverted yield curve since last Week, when the spread between the U.S. three-month Treasury bill yield and the 10-year note rate turned negative, the first time since 2007, according to Refinitiv Tradeweb data.

An inverted yield curve happens when short-term rates surpass their longer-term counterparts, which is widely regarded as a harbinger of recession in the near future.

The U.S. economy has suffered a slowdown in economic growth in the fourth quarter of 2018, stoking fears over a potential economic downturn.

Gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 2.2 percent in the fourth quarter, down from the third quarter's 3.4 percent, said the U.S. Department of Commerce on Thursday.

The slower growth pace came mainly as personal consumption expenditures, state and local government spending, and nonresidential fixed investment were revised down.

Investors have also digested a slew of mixed economic data throughout the Week.

U.S. consumer sentiment improved for second straight month in March.

The University of Michigan's consumer sentiment index rose to a reading of 98.4 from 93.8 in the prior month, slightly above the average of 97.2 recorded in the past 26 months, the university said in its latest survey released on Friday.

The March gain in the sentiment index was entirely due to households with incomes in the bottom two-thirds of the income distribution, while households with incomes in the top third fell, according to Richard Curtin, surveys of consumers chief economist.

Similarly, U.S. consumer spending increased slightly in January. Consumer spending normally accounts for more than two-thirds of U.S. economic activity.

Personal consumption expenditures increased 8.6 billion U.S. dollars, or 0.1 percent, the U.S. Department of Commerce said Friday.

The growth was mainly contributed by rising spending for services, including financial services and insurance, which offset a decrease in spending in goods.

Further backing the market, the number of Americans filing applications for jobless benefits unexpectedly declined last Week, suggesting a strong labor market.

In the Week ending March 23, U.S. jobless claims, an important measure of unemployment, fell to 211,000, a decrease of 5,000 from the previous Week's revised level, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Likewise, the U.S. international Trade in goods and services deficit in January sharply declined 14.6 percent to 51.1 billion U.S. dollars from 59.9 billion dollars in December, the U.S. Census Bureau said Wednesday.

The overall Trade deficit was narrowed, as January's exports increased 1.9 billion dollars, due to rising exports of automotive vehicles, parts, and engines, as well as foods, feeds, and beverages, such as soybeans.

In comparison, imports largely fell 6.8 billion dollars, due to less imports of capital goods, industrial supplies and materials, such as crude oil, according to the bureau.

However, U.S. homebuilding fell short of market expectations in February.

Privately-owned housing starts declined 8.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.162 million units last month, said the U.S. Census Bureau on Tuesday.

The drop marked the steepest level in eight month, as single-family housing starts, or homebuilding, sharply fell 17 percent in February.