NEW YORK, Jan. 19 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks extended gains over the week as Wall Street speculated potential progress in U.S.-China trade talks while digesting a slew of corporate earnings.
In the week ending Jan. 18, the Dow hiked 2.96 percent, the S&P 500 gained 2.87 percent and the Nasdaq climbed 2.66 percent.
The Dow and S&P 500 posted their fourth straight week of gains, their longest since August.
The 30-stock index notched more than 300-point rally on Friday led by gains in Home Depot and UnitedHealth Group. Caterpillar and Boeing, companies with high overseas revenue exposure, rose 2.18 percent and 1.57 percent, respectively, also among the best performers in the Dow.
The S&P 500 climbed 1.3 percent to 2,670.71 on Friday, out of correction territory, as energy and industrials sectors outperformed.
Tesla had a brutal Friday with its shares plunging about 13 percent. The move came after the company was reported to cut its full-time staff headcount by about 7 percent as it ramps up production of its Model 3 sedan.
Netflix stock sank about 4 percent on Friday as the U.S. online streaming giant reported mixed fourth-quarter results, with earnings exceeding estimates while revenue missing them. The results came after the company announced it would raise monthly subscription prices in the United States by 13 to 18 percent, a move that was cheered by Wall Street earlier this week.
Many major U.S. financial institutions delivered their latest quarterly results this week.
Goldman Sachs posted fourth-quarter earnings per share of 6.04 U.S. dollars, outpacing analysts' estimates of 4.45 dollars per share surveyed by Refinitiv. It reported revenue of 8.08 billion U.S. dollars for the quarter, also exceeding forecasts.
Bank of America also reported record earnings on Wednesday, generating earnings per share of 70 cents, beating analyst estimates of 63 cents.
However, J.P. Morgan Chase released fourth-quarter profit and revenue that both fell short of estimates. Citigroup reported weaker-than-expected revenue on Monday.
Despite of the weekly gains, investors grew concerned over a slowdown of global growth and the U.S. government's record-long shutdown.
On the economic front, U.S. consumer sentiment index fell to 90.7 in January from 98.3 in December amid growing concerns over U.S. economic growth, said the report released by the University of Michigan on Friday. The reading missed market consensus.
U.S. industrial production rose 0.3 percent in December after a revised 0.4-percent gain in November, in line with analysts' estimates, according to data released by the Federal Reserve.
Meanwhile, in the week ending Jan. 12, the advance figure for U.S. initial jobless claims, a rough measure of layoffs, was 213,000, down 3,000 from the previous week's unrevised level, the Department of Labor reported on Thursday. The reading was lower than market consensus.
