US STOCKS-Wall St closes higher with indexes notching weekly gains

By Abigail Summerville and Purvi Agarwal

Sept 19 (Reuters) - Wall Street's main indexes closed higher on Friday and also posted a weekly gain, as FedEx FDX.N rose after positive earnings.

The parcel delivery company popped 2.1% after it reported quarterly profit and revenue above analyst estimates on Thursday, as cost-cutting and strength in domestic deliveries helped offset weaker international volumes.

Apple AAPL.O rose 3.2% following a price target raise from J.P. Morgan, while gains in Palantir Technologies PLTR.O and Oracle ORCL.N also drove the S&P 500 technology .SPLRCT sector up 1.19%.

Seven of the 11 S&P sector indexes rose, while energy .SPNY stocks were the biggest drag.

The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq notched their third straight week of gains, boosted by the Fed's first rate cut of 2025 and indications of further monetary policy easing. Revived optimism around AI-linked stock trading also added to the rise.

Wall Street wavered earlier in the day as investors continued to digest the Fed's outlook and get a read on Stephen Miran, its newest governor and White House economic adviser, who spoke on CNBC on Friday morning.

"Certainly if the idea is the Fed is moving in a direction to relax the inflation target, that is definitely a recipe for running hot, and that's good for stocks," said Scott Ladner, chief investment officer at Horizon Investments.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average .DJI rose 172.85 points, or 0.37%, to 46,315.27, the S&P 500 .SPX gained 32.40 points, or 0.49%, to 6,664.36 and the Nasdaq Composite .IXIC gained 160.75 points, or 0.72%, to 22,631.48.

For the week, the S&P 500 rose 1.2%, the Nasdaq climbed 2.2% and the Dow added 1.05%.

The small-cap Russell 2000 index .RUT dropped 0.71% after briefly hitting an intraday record high. It notched a record close on Thursday, its first since November 2021.

"Small caps have been trading inversely with rates, and it's just the idea of small caps benefiting disproportionately from lower interest rates," Ladner said.

Meanwhile, U.S. President Donald Trump and Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping spoke by phone, after which Trump said that the two leaders made progress on a TikTok deal and agreed to a face-to-face meeting as soon as next month in South Korea.

Also on Friday, the Senate blocked a short-term funding bill, increasing the likelihood of a U.S. government shutdown.

Wall Street's three main indexes are in positive territory so far in September - a month traditionally deemed bad for U.S. equities. The benchmark S&P 500 has shed 1.4% on average in the month since 2000, according to data compiled by LSEG.

In other stock news, Lennar LEN.N fell 4.2% after the homebuilder reported a lower third-quarter profit and forecast fourth-quarter home deliveries below estimates.

Paramount Skydance PSKY.O jumped 5.9% after a CNBC report laid out more details about the media company's potential bid for Warner Bros Discovery WBD.O, which rose 3.4%. An offer could come later than previously expected, according to CNBC.

Declining issues outnumbered advancers by a 1.43-to-1 ratio on the NYSE, and by a 1.42-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.

The S&P 500 posted 30 new 52-week highs and 17 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 151 new highs and 54 new lows.

Volume on U.S. exchanges was 26.33 billion shares, compared with the 17.41 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days.