Wall Street climbs as tech, financial stocks gain; S&P energy index up 1%

Gains in technology and financial stocks lifted Wall Street on Friday but the main indexes were still on track to record losses for the week that was dominated by trade war worries and political uncertainties.

Shares of JPMorgan and Bank of America rose more than half a percent, helping the S&P financial index gain 0.65 percent.

American Express rose 1.5 percent and was the biggest boost to the Dow Jones Industrial Average, which was up 0.21 percent at 24,926.47 points.

Markets were battered this week by fears of a trade war after reports that President Donald Trump was planning to impose tariffs on Chinese imports and the ouster of Secretary of State Rex Tillerson.

The Washington Post reported on Thursday that Trump had decided to remove H R McMaster as his national security advisor.

However, White House spokeswoman Sarah Sanders tweeted that there were no changes at the National Security Council.

"I'm not so sure if it's just the staffing changes, the continued uncertainty about the tariffs is weighing more than anything else," said Randy Frederick, vice president of trading and derivatives for Charles Schwab in Austin, Texas.

The S&P 500 rose 0.26 percent after recording on Thursday its longest losing streak in 2018 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 0.16 percent as technology stocks climbed.

Among the tech gainers, Adobe Systems rose about 4 percent after the Photoshop maker topped analysts' profit and revenue estimates for the seventh straight quarter.

Micron Technology rose 1 percent after Baird analysts raised their price target on the stock by $40 to $100 and Western Digital gained 1.6 percent after an upgrade to "outperform".

Tiffany & Co fell 6 percent after the upscale jeweller missed Wall Street estimates for quarterly same-store sales and full-year profit forecast.

Volatility is expected to increase on Friday as investors unwind interests in futures and options contracts prior to their expiration.

Advancing issues outnumbered decliners on the NYSE for a 1.20-to-1 ratio and on a 1.18-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.