Stocks Opened Slightly Higher as Trump Slump Eased

U.S. stocks edged up in early trading on Friday, as a sense of calm prevailed over Wall Street in a week that was dominated by political uncertainty surrounding Donald Trump’s presidency. The Dow Jones Industrial Average lately rose 89.87 points, or 0.43%, to 20,752.89. The S&P 500 added 14.06 points, or 0.59%, to 2,379.78. The Nasdaq Composite climbed 41.36 points, or 0.68%, to 6,096.49.

Oil prices were heading on Friday for a second week of gains on growing expectations that big crude exporters will extend output cuts to curb a persistent glut in inventories. Brent crude was up 65 cents at $53.16 at 1138 GMT. U.S. benchmark crude oil was up 61 cents at $49.96 a barrel.

Deere & Co reported a bigger-than-expected quarterly profit, as sales rose for the first time in more than three years on improving demand for its farm and construction equipment. Net income attributable to Deere rose to $802.4 million, or $2.49 cents per share, in the second quarter ended April 30 from $495.4 million, or $1.56 cents per share, a year earlier. Total sales and revenue rose 5.2 percent to $8.29 billion.

Foot Locker Inc., the sporting goods retailer, posted weaker-than-expected earnings for the first quarter. Foot Locker said it had net income of $180 million, or $1.36 a share, in the first quarter, down from $191 million, or 1.39 a share, in the year-earlier period. Sales rose 0.7% to $2.00 billion.