A late-afternoon rally on Wall Street helped stocks close higher Friday, though the major indexes still wound up finishing lower for the week after several days of bumpy trading.
The S&P 500 rose 0.5 percent after wavering between small gains and losses for much of the day. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.6 percent and the Nasdaq composite ended essentially flat after swinging between a 1 percent gain and an 0.8 percent drop.
Several big retailers made solid gains after reporting strong quarterly results and gave investors encouraging financial forecasts. Discount retailer Ross Stores surged 9.9 percent for the biggest gain among S&P 500 stocks, while clothing retailer Gap rose 7.6 percent after beating analysts’ expectations. Foot Locker climbed 8.7 percent after raising its profit and revenue forecast for the year….