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 Indexes finished off their highs of the session after Federal
Reserve Chair Janet Yellen said she expected the Fed to raise
interest rates at some point this year, while expressing concern
that the U.S. labor market remained weak.
Investors have long expected a rate hike in 2015, though opinions
have been split on whether it would come in September or December.
Yellen gave no direct hint about whether the U.S. central bank would
raise rates more than once over the course of its four remaining
meetings in 2015.
The day's gains were widespread, with all 10 of the S&P 500's
primary sectors higher on the day.
Euro zone finance ministers will meet on Saturday to decide on a
third bailout for Greece, which made substantial concessions in its
latest proposal to lenders, including tax hikes, in hopes of
receiving $59 billion to help it cover debts until 2018.
"Investors are betting that a Greek deal will be struck by this
Sunday, and that reduction of risk is boosting stocks today. The
removal of the risk of an exogenous shock means better market
psychology," said Jim McDonald, who helps oversee $960 billion in
assets as chief investment strategist at Northern Trust in Chicago.
For the week, the Dow rose 0.17 percent while the S&P fell 0.01
percent and the Nasdaq ended down 0.23 percent in its third straight
weekly decline. Equities were pressured earlier this week by a
slowdown in China, weak commodity prices and uncertainty over the
Greek debt crisis.
Wall Street was also supported on Friday by a continued recovery in
China's equity market, which was helped by a barrage of government
support measures. Chinese Premier Li Keqiang said the country would
make more targeted changes to its policies to support the economy
and promised to increase the transparency of China's capital and
money markets.
The Bank of New York Mellon China's index of Chinese shares traded
in the United States <.BKCN> rose 2.4 percent.
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The Dow Jones industrial average <.DJI> rose 211.79 points, or 1.21
percent, to 17,760.41, the S&P 500 <.SPX> gained 25.31 points, or
1.23 percent, to 2,076.62 and the Nasdaq Composite <.IXIC> added
75.30 points, or 1.53 percent, to 4,997.70.
The U.S. quarterly earnings season kicked off this week, with Pepsi
<PEP.N> and Alcoa <AA.N> reporting better-than- expected sales.
However, corporate earnings are estimated to have fallen 3.1 percent
in the second quarter, according to Thomson Reuters data.
Cablevision <CVC.N> jumped 7.3 percent to $26.67 on a Wall Street
Journal report that French billionaire Patrick Drahi was looking at
cable targets for acquisitions.
Zillow <Z.O> fell 7.7 percent to $78.67 a day after it said its
chief financial officer was leaving to pursue other business
interests.
Advancing issues outnumbered declining ones on the NYSE by 2,456 to
623, for a 3.94-to-1 ratio on the upside; on the Nasdaq, 2,188
issues rose and 595 fell for a 3.68-to-1 ratio favoring advancers.
The benchmark S&P 500 index posted 17 new 52-week highs and 15 new
lows; the Nasdaq Composite recorded 83 new highs and 60 new lows.
About 5.67 billion shares traded on all U.S. platforms, according to
BATS exchange data, compared with the month-to-date average of 7.03
billion.
(Editing by Andrew Hay and James Dalgleish)
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