US Stocks Rise as Bonds Steady         08/21 09:43

   U.S. stocks are rising Friday and trimming their losses from what's been a 
shaky week. The bond market, which has been the center of Wall Street's action, 
remains jumpy, but yields are not moving as much as earlier in the week and are 
helping to keep financial markets relatively calm.

   NEW YORK (AP) -- U.S. stocks are rising Friday and trimming their losses 
from what's been a shaky week. The bond market, which has been the center of 
Wall Street's action, remains jumpy, but yields are not moving as much as 
earlier in the week and are helping to keep financial markets relatively calm.

   The S&P 500 rose 0.3% and was on track for just its second gain in the six 
days since it set its all-time high last week. The Dow Jones Industrial Average 
was up 250 points, or 0.5%, as of 9:35 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq 
composite was 0.3% higher.

   Ross Stores helped lead the way and climbed 3.8% after reporting stronger 
profit and revenue for the latest quarter than analysts expected. CEO Jim 
Conroy said it saw both an increase in new customers and more interest from 
existing customers, while the off-price retailer at the same time benefited 
from refunds on tariffs.

   Most U.S. companies have reported bigger profits for the spring than 
analysts expected, which has helped drive the stock market's run to records 
recently. Stock prices tend to follow the path of corporate profits over the 
long term.

   The other big lever that helps set stock prices is interest rates, which 
have been much shakier.

   After surging through the summer and then hesitating earlier this week 
following a surprise announcement by the U.S. Treasury Department that it will 
repurchase more longer-term bonds, yields held relatively steady in the bond 
market on Friday.

   The yield on the 10-year Treasury ticked up to 4.71% from 4.69% late 
Thursday. But it yo-yoed repeatedly between that level and 4.68% in the 
overnight and early-morning hours.

   Contributing to the swings was continued uncertainty about when the war with 
Iran will allow oil tankers to freely exit the Persian Gulf again. That caused 
oil prices to move between gains and losses, which directly affected Treasury 
yields because higher prices raise worries about inflation.

   The price for a barrel of Brent crude oil added 0.4% to $94.09 after 
flipping repeatedly within a roughly $2 band.

   One of the biggest beneficiaries of U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent's 
move to increase the planned repurchases of Treasurys is bitcoin. 
Cryptocurrencies often rise when interest rates are lower and more money is 
flowing through the financial system.

   Bitcoin has climbed above $76,500 from less than $63,000 a week ago.

   That helped stocks in the crypto industry lead Wall Street. Robinhood 
Markets climbed 8.8%, and Coinbase Global rose 7.8%.

   In stock markets abroad, indexes rose in much of Asia and Europe. Hong 
Kong's Hang Seng rose 1.2%, and South Korea's Kospi climbed 0.9% for two of the 
world's bigger moves.