NEW YORK — U.S. stocks ticked higher Friday after Wall Street showed its appetite is still big for winners of the artificial-intelligence boom. The S&P 500 rose 0.4 per cent to close out its fourth winning week in the last five. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 149 points, or 0.3 per cent, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.3 per cent. SK Hynix, a giant South Korean maker of memory chips, shone in the debut of its stock trading on the Nasdaq. After raising roughly US$26.5 billion by selling American depositary shares at a price of US$149 each, it jumped immediately after trading began in the midday hours and finished with a gain of 13.1 per cent. SK Hynix’s stock in Seoul has already surged 634 per cent over the last year thanks to euphoria around AI. The boom has created real profits due to surging demand for computer memory. But it’s also raised worries that AI stock prices have shot have too high and that all the world’s spending on chips and data centers won’t be able to produce enough productivity and profit growth to make it worth it. That’s led to sharp recent swings for AI stocks, which have grown into some of Wall Street’s most influential because of their huge sizes. Nvidia was the strongest single force lifting the S&P 500 Friday after rising 4 per cent. Beyond the uncertainty about AI, the focus on Wall Street is shifting to the upcoming reporting season for companies’ profits during the spring. Delta Air Lines said it was able to absorb higher fuel prices from April through June because of strong demand from customers to fly, including a wide range of corporate travelers. That helped it report profit and revenue for the spring that topped analysts’ expectations, and it gave a forecasted range for upcoming profit in the summer whose midpoint was above analysts’ expectations. Delta’s stock fell 1.8 per cent, though, after coming into the day with a strong 28.2 per cent rise for the year so far. Companies across industries will need to produce big growth in profits to justify the big moves for their stock prices, which are broadly near records. Next week will feature earnings reports from many of the biggest U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Goldman Sachs and Wells Fargo on Tuesday alone. Elsewhere on Wall Street, Circle Internet Group rose 5 per cent. The company behind the USDC cryptocurrency, which is supposed to keep the value of US$1, said it won U.S. regulatory approval to establish a bank. It will operate under the name Circle National Trust, and CEO Jeremy Allaire said the move “marks a defining step in bringing blockchain technology and digital assets into the core of the U.S. financial system.” WD-40’s stock jumped 10.6 per cent after reporting much stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. All told, the S&P 500 rose 31.75 points to 7,575.39. The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 149.60 to 52,367.01, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 74.72 to 26,281.61. In the oil market, prices continued to pare jumps from earlier in the week on worries about how the war with Iran will affect the global flow of crude. The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil, the international standard, dipped 0.4 per cent to US$76.01. That’s above its US$72 price from the start of the week, but it’s still well below its wartime peak of nearly US$120. The worry is that continued fighting could block oil tankers from the Strait of Hormuz and prevent the delivery of crude from the Persian Gulf to customers worldwide. President Donald Trump said on his social-media platform that he agreed to continue talks with Iran but also that the United States told Iran “that the Cease Fire is OVER!” In the bond market, Treasury yields ticked higher. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 4.56 per cent from 4.54 per cent late Thursday. High yields have weighed on financial markets worldwide. Yields have climbed on worries about expensive oil and high inflation, which could push the Federal Reserve and other central banks to raise interest rates. Higher rates can keep a lid on inflation, but they also slow the economy and hurt prices for all kinds of investments. In stock markets abroad, indexes were mixed. South Korea’s Kospi jumped 2.5 per cent, and Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 1.2 per cent for two of the world’s bigger moves, but stocks fell 1 per cent in Shanghai. ___ Stan Choe, The Associated Press AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed to this report.
