The possibility was there for some fireworks Friday as Fed Chair Janet Yellen and ECB President Mario Draghi spoke at the Fed's annual economic symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyo., but not much came out of it as major stock indexes didn't move much in either direction.
X There wasn't much talk about interest rates and the Fed's bloated $4.5 trillion balance sheet, but Yellen offered praise for financial system reforms in the wake of the 2008 credit crisis.
The S&P 500 added 0.2%, the Dow Jones industrial average inched up 0.1% and the Nasdaq composite eased 0.1%. Preliminary data showed volume on the NYSE and Nasdaq coming in lower than Thursday's levels in the stock market today.
Weekly losing streaks for the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 ended at four, with the Nasdaq showing a weekly gain of 0.8%. The Russell 2000 gained 1.5% for the week.
Beaten-down airline stocks and department store operators outperformed.
Dow component Home Depot (HD) outperformed, rising nearly 1%. The company is expected to boost sales in the Texas coast area as Hurricane Harvey approaches. It was recently upgraded to a Category 3 storm and will likely make landfall tonight or early Saturday. Category 3 storms can have winds as high as 125 mph.
Also notable on the Dow was Wal-Mart (WMT), which is rising from support at the 50-day moving average after a rough session Thursday. But the retailer remains below an 80.57 buy point.
Among the day's movers, Pure Storage (PSTG) surged past a 13.98 buy point on strong earnings. Shares surged 19% to 14.95. The company makes storage systems for businesses and cloud computing using flash-based chip technology.
Meanwhile, inside the IBD 50, Cadence Design Systems (CDNS) outperformed rising 0.6% to 37.40. It's in the same industry group as Autodesk (ADSK), which jumped nearly 4% to 114.97. Cadence is near the top of a 5% buy zone from a 35.79 buy point. Autodesk ended just below a 115.35 entry.
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