Markets Right Now: Stocks rise for the 6th straight day

NEW YORK – The latest on developments in financial markets (all times local):

4 p.m.

Stocks ended an up-and-down day mostly higher, capping a week of strong gains that wiped out more than half of the losses suffered in a series of wild swings in early February.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose for the sixth day in a row Friday.

Health care companies posted big gains. Drugmaker AbbVie jumped 3.2 per cent.

Homebuilders rose following a report that new construction jumped last month. D.R. Horton rose 1 per cent.

Technology stocks fell, pulling the Nasdaq composite index lower.

The S&P 500 edged up 1 point to 2,732.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 19 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 25,219. The Nasdaq fell 16 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 7,239.

Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 2.87 per cent.

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11:45 a.m.

Stocks shook off a wobbly start and are higher at midday, putting the market on track for its sixth gain in a row.

The market is headed for its biggest weekly gain since 2011 Friday as it recovers more of the ground it lost in a harrowing plunge at the beginning of February.

Health care and technology companies led the way higher. Johnson & Johnson climbed 2.1 per cent and Applied Materials rose 3.2 per cent.

Homebuilders rose following a report that new home construction jumped last month. D.R. Horton rose 1.2 per cent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 14 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 2,746.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 161 points, or 0.6 per cent, to 25,359. The Nasdaq increased 30 points, or 0.4 per cent, to 7,286.

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9:35 a.m.

Stocks are opening slightly higher on Wall Street as the market caps off a solid week of gains.

Health care companies were posting some of the biggest gains in early trading Friday. Drugmaker AbbVie rose 2.3 per cent.

Homebuilders were broadly higher following a report that new home construction jumped 9.7 per cent last month to the highest level since October 2016. D.R. Horton rose 1.1 per cent.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 2 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 2,733.

The Dow Jones industrial average climbed 39 points, or 0.2 per cent, to 25,242. The Nasdaq climbed 6 points, or 0.1 per cent, to 7,263.