Wall St edges higher after Fed chief’s comments, but set for weekly loss

Hewlett Packard slumps after dour second-quarter forecasts

Nonfarm payrolls increase by 151,000 in February

Indexes up: Dow 0.46%, S&P 500 0.43%, Nasdaq 0.54%

By Chibuike Oguh, Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta

NEW YORK, March 7 (Reuters) –

U.S. stocks edged higher on Friday, rebounding from early declines after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said the economy was “in a good place.”

But stocks were headed for a weekly loss as Powell said the central bank will not be quick to cut interest rates and echoed investor concerns about President Donald Trump’s policies.

Markets have been roiled this week by uncertainty about Trump’s trade policy, particularly tariff decisions on imported goods from Canada, Mexico and China.

Powell said the Fed will take a cautious approach to monetary policy easing, adding that the economy currently “continues to be in a good place”.

“Powell is echoing what the rest of us feel: unease that while the adjustments made by the administration may well work and put the country on better financial footing, the speed and whipsaw-like nature of the change makes it difficult to predict and to plan around,” said Jamie Cox, managing partner at Harris Financial Group in Richmond, Virginia. “So, the best action when that occurs is to sit and wait.”

Stocks fell in choppy early trade, but rebounded after Powell’s comments. Among the benchmark S&P 500 11 main sectors, utilities, energy, technology and industrials were advancing. Consumer discretionary , financials and consumer staples were dropping.

The three main indexes were set to end the week lower, with the Nasdaq on track to finish nearly 4% down, which would be its biggest weekly drop since September. In the previous session, the Nasdaq confirmed a 10% drop from its December all-time high.

At 2:55 p.m., the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 197.08 points, or 0.46%, to 42,776.16, the S&P 500 gained 24.86 points, or 0.43%, to 5,763.38 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 99.41 points, or 0.54%, to 18,167.37.

Data early on Friday showed U.S. job growth picked up in February from the previous month. However, thousands of recent firings of federal workers were not reflected in the data.

Unemployment ticked up to 4.1%, adding to worries about the economy’s resilience. Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs have lowered their growth forecasts for the economy.

“This is a growth scare,” said Adam Hetts, portfolio manager at Janus Henderson Investors. “This is what it feels like to go from a no-landing to a soft-landing environment and it’s unpleasant. It involves a spate of unpleasant economic data, and the primary driver being weaker consumer spending.”

On Thursday, Trump offered a four-week reprieve on tariffs he imposed on imports from Canada and Mexico that fall under a free-trade pact. The U.S. remains in a trade war with China.

Reciprocal trade barriers and other duties are expected to take effect in the following weeks.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise slumped 13% after saying its annual profit forecast would be hit by U.S. tariffs.

Costco fell 7% after the retailer missed Street estimates on quarterly earnings as merchandise costs increased.

Broadcom gained 7.6% after the chipmaker assuaged investor worries about artificial intelligence infrastructure demand with a strong second-quarter forecast.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.32-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 75 new highs and 121 new lows on the NYSE.

The S&P 500 posted 8 new 52-week highs and 13 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 21 new highs and 148 new lows.

(Reporting by Johann M Cherian and Sukriti Gupta in Bengaluru and Chibuike Oguh in New York; Additional reporting by Saeed Azhar; Editing by Shinjini Ganguli, Shounak Dasgupta and David Gregorio)