An optimistic statement from the US Federal Reserve sent the dollar up and gold prices down as traders prepared for rising interest rates.

A burst of buying in US stocks defied slumps in other markets and offered hope for investors shaken by geopolitical turmoil.

The Dow Jones industrial average hit a record on Friday, but without much conviction after a choppy day of trading during which investors couldn’t make up their minds whether to buy or sell.

Soothing words from US Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen have helped pull the stock market out of a morning slump, but internet companies and Whole Foods Market plunged, taking the Nasdaq down.

The Dow Jones industrial average closed at an all-time high as the good narrowly outweighed the bad for the stock market.

Netflix is preparing a sequel unlikely to be a hit with subscribers – the internet video service is about to raise its prices for the first time in three years to help pay for more programming such as its popular political drama House Of Cards.

Google is not immune to setbacks caused by the global shift to mobile computing.

Stocks closed higher for a fourth straight day on Wall Street yesterday after a report on hiring provided another encouraging sign that the US economy is emerging from its winter slump.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index eked out its second small gain of the week yesterday as investors pored over the latest earnings reports.

BlackBerry Ltd, coping with the collapse of a $4.7bn buyout by Fairfax Financial Holdings, will raise $1bn in convertible bonds and seek a new chief executive officer for the struggling company.

October often makes investors nervous, since that is when some of the biggest crashes in stock market history happened – but this year the market seemed unstoppable.

It was another record day for US stocks yesterday, but barely.

A mixed batch of earnings results gave investors little direction yesterday as traders began looking ahead to a packed schedule next week.

Wall Street is focusing on the positive, with major stock indexes rising for a second day yesterday.

Wall Street’s recent passion for high-dividend stocks is fading.

Signs of a slowing economy combined with comments from a Federal Reserve official helped pull the US stock market down yesterday.

A record-breaking rally in US stocks paused yesterday as investors assessed whether the rise in stock valuations overstated the recent improvement in the economy.

The FBI is investigating a fake tweet, which claimed President Obama had been injured in explosions at the White House.

Stocks fell on Wall Street yesterday after the government reported that US employers added the fewest jobs in nine months in March and more people gave up looking for work.

The Nasdaq composite index briefly touched 3,000 today for the first time since the collapse in dot-com stocks more than a decade ago. Stocks ended lower, but it was still the best February on Wall Street in 14 years.