* U.S. stocks mixed, near flat in early trading. * Oil prices gain, up for week. * U.S. dollar index higher. By Caroline Valetkevitch. Major world stock indexes were little changed on Friday as investors further assessed the economic fallout of China's coronavirus outbreak, while oil prices were on track for their first weekly gain since early January.
U.S. stocks drifted higher Friday as investors' concerns about a sharp rise in coronavirus cases from earlier in the week faded. The Nasdaq Composite added 0.3%. The S&P 500 and Dow Jones Industrial Average were little changed.
Wall Street edged lower on Friday as uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus epidemic and downbeat economic data put a damper on investor sentiment. While the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq were down only modestly, the industrials-heavy Dow suffered a larger decline.
Major U.S. stock indexes set fresh highs this week, but the coronavirus still dominated the news with more questions than answers. Can central bankers blunt its effect on the economy? The answers seemed to change by the hour, resulting in an erratic week of trading.
The S&P 500 ended modestly higher on Friday following strong earnings from Nvidia and a report late in the session that the White House was considering a tax incentive for Americans to buy stocks. Uncertainties surrounding the coronavirus epidemic and downbeat economic data had put a damper on investor sentiment for much of the day.
Global stocks wavered Friday as investors weighed the potential impact of the fast-spreading coronavirus and the fresh tensions stemming from the U.S.' s battle against China's Huawei Technologies on economic growth. Futures tied to the Dow Jones Industrial Average edged up 0.1%, while the Stoxx Europe 600 index swung between gains and losses. Over in Asia, the Shanghai Composite Index closed 0.4% higher.
* A look at the day ahead from EMEA deputy markets editor Sujata Rao. China's announcement of more than 5,000 new coronavirus cases and 121 new deaths indicate the epidemic hasn't peaked yet.
By Mark DeCambre, MarketWatch, Andrea Riquier. A new method of diagnosing COVID-19 cases brings total deaths from the outbreak to 1,369, while confirmed infections rose to 60,329. Stock indexes closed lower Thursday despite hitting fresh intraday highs after a change in the methodology used by China resulted in a sharp rise in COVID-19 cases and deaths.
A rally in U.S. stocks paused Thursday after a spike in the number of new coronavirus cases in the Chinese province at the epicenter of a global outbreak. Chinese officials reported the number of newly confirmed infections in Hubei jumped nearly 10- fold overnight. That raised the prospect of a longer period of economic disruption than investors previously anticipated and weighed on markets that had climbed for much of the past two weeks.
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