Stocks climb; S&P 500 snaps two-week losing streak

Stocks rose on Friday, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index cruised to its first winning week in the last three.

It was a relatively quiet week, with fewer shares trading hands than usual, and one where the most anticipated event was a pair of speeches expected to create only a ripple in the market, if that. The annual symposium of central bankers in Wyoming followed through on those expectations.

The S&P 500 rose 4.08 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,443.05, and it barely budged off its course after Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen gave her speech in the morning. A speech by European Central Bank head Mario Draghi, likewise did little to alter the course for stocks.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 30.27 points, or 0.1 percent, to 21,813.67, the Nasdaq composite dipped 5.68, or 0.1 percent, to 6,265.64 and the Russell 2000 index of small-cap stocks rose 3.58, or 0.3 percent, to 1,377.45.

Design-software company Autodesk jumped to one of the biggest gains in the S&P 500 after reporting stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. It gained $4.36, or 3.9 percent, to $114.97.

Stronger-than-expected earnings reports from big U.S. companies have helped to support the market, while worries about politics have intermittently chipped away at confidence. The S&P 500 climbed 0.7 percent this week, following losses of 0.6 percent and 1.4 percent the last two weeks.