Roundup: U.S. stocks post weekly gains before Christmas holiday

U.S. stocks ended higher for the week after wavering between gains and losses, as many traders were expected to be away from their desks for the Christmas holiday.

For the holiday-shortened week, the Dow rose 0.5 percent, notching gains for a seventh straight week, and the S&P 500 increased 0.3 percent, while the Nasdaq moved up 0.5 percent.

U.S. stocks ended higher after wavering in a tight range on Monday and Tuesday, as investors digested a speech from Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen and Bank of Japan (BOJ)'s decision to keep its monetary policy unchanged after the conclusion of its two-day policy meeting.

Yellen said at a University of Baltimore commencement ceremony Monday that the U.S. had the strongest jobs market in nearly a decade, and that there were indications wage growth was picking up, according to the CNBC.

While maintaining its negative 0.1 percent interest rate on some bank reserves, the BOJ also opted to leave its 10-year Japanese government bond (JGB) yield target at about zero, while annual holdings were kept at a rise of about 80 trillion yen (682 billion U.S. dollars).

Following the policy meeting and opting to hold pat on any new policy changes, the central bank also upgraded its economic assessment saying a moderate recovery trend has continued while exports have picked up.

"Japan's economy has continued its moderate recovery trend. Overseas economies have continued to grow at a moderate pace, although emerging economies remain sluggish in part. In this situation, exports have picked up," the BOJ said in a statement on Tuesday.

U.S. stocks ended lower on Wednesday and Thursday, as Wall Street meditated on a batch of earnings results and economic reports from the country.

After Tuesday's closing bell, Nike Inc. reported profits of 50 cents per share for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2017 ended Nov. 30, on revenues of 8.2 billion U.S. dollars.

Following the release of the better-than-expected quarterly results, shares of the athletic retailer rose 0.98 percent to 52.30 U.S. dollars apiece Wednesday.

Shares of FedEx Corp. dropped 3.32 percent to 192.14 dollars apiece Wednesday after the U.S. shipping giant reported earnings for the second quarter of its fiscal year 2017 that missed analysts' estimates.

On the economic front, U.S. real gross domestic product (GDP) increased at an annual rate of 3.5 percent in the third quarter of 2016, beating market consensus of 3.3 percent, according to the "third" estimate released by the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

The third estimate is higher than the second estimate of 3.2 percent. In the second quarter, real GDP increased 1.4 percent.

In a separate report, the bureau announced that new orders for manufactured durable goods in November decreased 11 billion dollars, or 4.6 percent, to 228.2 billion dollars, exceeding market estimates.

U.S. personal income in November increased 1.6 billion dollars, or less than 0.1 percent, the Commerce Department announced in another report. Disposable personal income decreased 1.3 billion dollars and personal consumption expenditures increased 24.0 billion dollars.

Meanwhile, in the week ending Dec. 17, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial jobless claims was 275,000, an increase of 21,000 from the previous week's unrevised level of 254,000, said the U.S. Labor Department.

The four-week moving average was 263,750, an increase of 6,000 from the previous week's unrevised average of 257,750.

Trading volume was light as investors prepared for their Christmas celebrations this weekend. U.S. stock markets will be closed Monday for the Christmas holiday. Endit