US stocks struggled to the end of trading on Friday but still managed their best week in two months.
Thanks to a rebound in tech stocks and energy shares which were buoyed by rising oil prices as Hurricane Florence, major indices ended higher over the five sessions.
The S&P 500 closed less than 0.1% higher on Friday, the Dow also finished higher by less than 0.1%, while the Nasdaq Composite slipped 0.1%.
The advance of Hurricane Florence left oil markets mixed on Friday, with West Texas Intermediate, the US indicator crude, up 0.5% to $US68.92 a barrel.
Brent, the global benchmark, was down 0.1% at $78.11, but hit a four-year high this week and both rose over the week (see commodities story) helped by Florence and a weaker greenback.
Florence’s influence will wane over the weekend, which could see oil prices and stocks slide this week, but Donald Trump’s latest blatherings on new tariffs for Chinese imports will keep investors anxious.
The US dollar ended down around 0.4%, while the Aussie dollar finished around 71.50, up nearly half a cent for the week and all due to the weakness in the greenback.
For the week, the S&P 500 jumped 1.2%, which was its best performance since mid-July.
This followed the 1% slide the week before as tech stocks led the sell-off. The Dow added 0.9%, and the Nasdaq gained 1.4% as Apple launched its new iPhone and iWatch. Apple shares rose 1.15% last week.
Eurozone shares gained 1.4% last week, Japanese shares surged 3.5% and Australian shares edged up 0.4%. However, Chinese shares remained under pressure and fell another 1.1%.
Bond yields mostly rose (the US 10 year yield topped the 3% level briefly on Friday for the first time in a month).
