Stock market today: Alphabet and Microsoft help Wall Street clinch its best week in nearly 6 months

NEW YORK (AP) — The best week for U.S. stocks since November closed out with more gains thanks to Alphabet and Microsoft on Friday.

The S&P 500 rallied 1% to finish its first winning week in the last four. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 153 points, or 0.4%, and the Nasdaq composite jumped 2%.

Alphabet leaped 10.2% after breezing past analysts’ expectations for profit last quarter. The parent company of Google also said it will start paying a dividend to investors and authorized a program to buy back up to $70 billion of its stock, a signal of how much cash it's generating.

Microsoft, meanwhile, climbed 1.8% after reporting stronger profit and revenue than expected. It cited strong growth in its cloud-computing business as it pushes artificial-intelligence technology to its customers.

They helped offset a 9.2% drop for Intel. It reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than expected, but its revenue fell short of analysts’ estimates. So did its forecast for profit in the current quarter.

Stocks have broadly been under pressure this month after hopes withered for multiple cuts to interest rates this year by the Federal Reserve. A series of reports this year showing inflation remaining worse than forecast has traders expecting maybe one cut this year, down from forecasts for six or more at the start of the year.

Yet another report on Friday showed inflation remaining stubbornly high. This time it was the measure of prices for March that the Federal Reserve prefers to use, but it wasn’t much worse than forecasts. Financial markets took it much more in stride than a report from the day before that suggested the same measure of inflation rose quickly from January through March.

Treasury yields largely eased in the bond market following Friday morning's report. The yield on the 10-year Treasury fell to 4.66% from 4.71% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which more closely tracks expectations for the Fed, held steadier. It edged down to 4.99% from 5.00%.

While inflation has remained hotter than forecast, EY Chief Economist Gregory Daco expects it to cool in coming months as shoppers pressured in part by slowing growth in wages tamp down their purchases, which is the fuel that gives inflation energy.

“Consumers remain willing to spend, but not on anything, nor at any price,” he said.

Economists also said the weaker-than-expected reading on the overall U.S. economy from Thursday, which helped send stocks sliding, may not be as bad as it seemed on the surface.

“The economy remains on solid footing,” Bank of America economists said in a report, pointing to solid buying trends from U.S. customers. Such an interpretation calms worries that the U.S. economy could be heading for a toxic mix of stagnating growth and high inflation, something that the Federal Reserve doesn’t have great tools to fix.

Still, the higher-than-expected inflation readings will likely keep the Fed on hold at its next policy meeting on Wednesday. Its main interest rate has been sitting at the highest level since 2001 in hopes of undercutting inflation by putting downward pressure on the economy and financial markets.

After earlier indicating that three cuts to interest rates could be on the way this year, top Fed officials have since said they could hold its main interest rate high for a while to ensure inflation heads down toward their 2% target.

Friday's report on sticky inflation “underscores Vanguard’s belief that the Federal Reserve may find it’s unable to cut interest rates this year,” according to the investment giant's global head of portfolio construction, Roger Aliaga-Diaz.

If interest rates stay high, companies will need to produce stronger profits for their stock prices to rise. So far this reporting season, the trend has been better than expected.

Roughly three out of four companies have been topping analysts' forecasts for profit, according to FactSet. That includes ResMed, which reported healthier profit and revenue than expected late Thursday. Its stock jumped 18.9% for Friday's biggest gain in the S&P 500.

All told, the S&P 500 rose 51.54 points to 5,099.96. The Dow added 153.86 to 38,239.66, and the Nasdaq gained 316.14 to 15,927.90.

In stock markets abroad, Japan's Nikkei 225 rose 0.8% after the Bank of Japan ended a policy meeting with no major changes to interest rates. Indexes also rose across much of the rest of Asia and Europe.

AP Business Writer Yuri Kageyama contributed.

A trader works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Traders work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange shortly after the opening bell, Wednesday, April 24, 2024, in New York. (AP Photo/Mary Altaffer)

Currency traders pass by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2024. Asian shares mostly rose Friday despite worries about the economic outlook and inflation in the U.S. and the rest of the world. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI) at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2024. Asian shares mostly rose Friday despite worries about the economic outlook and inflation in the U.S. and the rest of the world. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

A currency trader passes by the screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the KEB Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, April 26, 2024. Asian shares mostly rose Friday despite worries about the economic outlook and inflation in the U.S. and the rest of the world. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

NEW YORK (AP) — Columbia University canceled its large university-wide commencement ceremony Monday following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests that have roiled its campus and others across the U.S., but said students will still be able to celebrate at a series of smaller, school-based ceremonies this week and next.

The decision comes as universities around the country wrangle with how to handle commencements for students whose high school graduations were derailed by COVID-19 in 2020. Another campus shaken by protests, Emory University, announced Monday that it would move its commencement from its Atlanta campus to a suburban arena. Others, including the University of Michigan, Indiana University and Northeastern, have pulled off ceremonies with few disruptions.

Columbia’s decision to cancel its main ceremonies scheduled for May 15 saves its president, Minouche Shafik, from having to deliver a commencement address in the same part of campus where police dismantled a protest encampment last week. The Ivy League school in upper Manhattan said it made the decision after discussions with students.

“Our students emphasized that these smaller-scale, school-based celebrations are most meaningful to them and their families,” officials said.

Most of the ceremonies that had been scheduled for the south lawn of the main campus, where encampments were taken down last week, will take place about 5 miles (8 kilometers) north at Columbia’s sports complex, officials said.

Speakers at some of Columbia’s still-scheduled graduation ceremonies include Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames and Dr. Monica Bertagnolli, director of the National Institutes of Health.

Columbia had already canceled in-person classes. More than 200 pro-Palestinian demonstrators who had camped out on Columbia’s green or occupied an academic building were arrested in recent weeks.

Similar encampments sprouted up elsewhere as universities struggled with where to draw the line between allowing free expression while maintaining safe and inclusive campuses.

The University of Southern California earlier canceled its main graduation ceremony. Students abandoned their camp at USC on Sunday after being surrounded by police and threatened with arrest.

Other universities have held graduation ceremonies with beefed-up security. The University of Michigan's ceremony was interrupted by chanting a few times Saturday. In Boston on Sunday, some students waved small Palestinian or Israeli flags at Northeastern University's commencement in Fenway Park.

Emory’s ceremonies scheduled for May 13 will be held at the GasSouth Arena and Convocation Center in Duluth, almost 20 miles (30 kilometers) northeast of the university’s Atlanta campus, President Gregory Fenves said in an open letter.

“Please know that this decision was not taken lightly,” Fenves wrote. “It was made in close consultation with the Emory Police Department, security advisors and other agencies — each of which advised against holding commencement events on our campuses.”

The 16,000-student university is one of many that has seen repeated protests stemming from the conflict that started Oct. 7 when Hamas militants attacked southern Israel, killing about 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and taking roughly 250 hostages. Student protesters are calling on their schools to divest from companies that do business with Israel or otherwise contribute to the war effort.

Vowing to destroy Hamas, Israel launched an offensive in Gaza that has killed more than 34,500 Palestinians, about two-thirds of them women and children, according to the Health Ministry in the Hamas-ruled territory. Israeli strikes have devastated the enclave and displaced most of its inhabitants.

Hamas on Monday announced its acceptance of an Egyptian-Qatari cease-fire proposal, but Israel said the deal did not meet its “core demands” and that it was pushing ahead with an assault on the southern Gaza town of Rafah.

“Cease-fires are temporary,” said Selina Al-Shihabi, a Georgetown University sophomore who was taking part in a protest at George Washington. “There can be a cease-fire, but the U.S. government will continue to arm the Israeli military. We plan to be here until the university divests or until they drag us out of here.”

Also Monday, the University of California, Los Angeles, alerted students that all classes were moving online due to ongoing disruptions following the dismantling of a pro-Palestinian encampment last week. The university police force reported 44 arrests but there were no specific details, UCLA spokesperson Eddie North-Hager said in an email to The Associated Press.

At the University of California, San Diego, police cleared a pro-Palestinian encampment and arrested more than 64 people, The San Diego Union-Tribune reported.

Schools are trying various tactics from appeasement to threats of disciplinary action to get protestors to take down encampments or move to campus areas where demonstrations would be less intrusive.

The School of the Art Institute of Chicago said in a Facebook post Sunday that it offered protesters “amnesty from academic sanction and trespassing charges” if they moved.

“Many protesters left the premises of their own accord after being notified by the police that they were trespassing and subject to arrest,” the school said. “Those that remained were arrested after multiple warnings to leave, including some of whom we recognized as SAIC students.”

A group of faculty and staff members at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill asked the administration for amnesty for any students who were arrested and suspended during recent protests. UNC Faculty and Staff for Justice in Palestine said in a media advisory that it would deliver a letter on behalf of more than 500 faculty who support the student activists.

Other universities took a different approach.

Harvard University's interim president, Alan Garber, warned student's that those participating in a pro-Palestinian encampment in Harvard Yard could face “involuntary leave.” That means they may would not be allowed on campus, could lose their student housing and may not be able to take exams, Garber said.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, police restricted access to an encampment after a school deadline for them to leave had passed. About 200 protesters gathered outside the camp, chanting, “MIT can’t you see? Palestine will be free” and other slogans.

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Associated Press writer Jeff Amy in Atlanta contributed to this report.

This story has been amended to change the first name of the president of Columbia University to reflect her preference, Minouche.

Police officers look on as a worker removes signs from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Pro-Palestinian protestors stand on Massachusetts Avenue near a student encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after a 2:30pm deadline passed to leave the encampment, Monday May 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Graduate student Bataya Kline speaks at a Pro-Palestinian rally Monday, May 6, 2024 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Conn. where a weeklong encampment has grown to more than 100 tents. Wesleyan officials have said they will allow the encampment to remain as long as the protests are peaceful and do not disrupt campus life. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

Graduate student Bataya Kline speaks at a Pro-Palestinian rally Monday, May 6, 2024 at Wesleyan University in Middletown, Connecticut where a weeklong encampment has grown to more than 100 tents. Wesleyan officials have said they will allow the encampment to remain as long as the protests are peaceful and do not disrupt campus life. (AP Photo/Pat Eaton-Robb)

Pro-Palestinian protesters at the encampment in the quad at the University of Chicago on the South Side, Monday, May 6, 2024. (Ashlee Rezin/Chicago Sun-Times via AP)

Police officers clash with Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared a campus Pro-Palestinian encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Students and passersby watch from a nearby building steps as Pro-Palestinian protestors gather outside a student encampment on the campus of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, after a 2:30pm deadline passed to leave the encampment, Monday May 6, 2024, in Cambridge, Mass. (AP Photo/Steve LeBlanc)

Police officers clash with Pro-Palestinian protesters at UC San Diego Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared a campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Workers remove tents and debris from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

Workers remove tents and debris from a Pro-Palestinian encampment set up in front of Geisel Library at UC San Diego, Monday, May 6, 2024, in San Diego. Police cleared the campus encampment in the early morning Monday. (AP Photo/Denis Poroy)

New York City police officers stand on the Columbia University campus, amongst the equipment that was to be used to host a large graduation ceremony, in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A New York City police officer looks over the center of Columbia University, the usual site of a large graduation ceremony, in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

A New York City police officer walks past seating that was to be used for a large graduation ceremony at Columbia University in New York, Monday, May 6, 2024. The university says it is canceling its university-wide commencement ceremony following weeks of pro-Palestinian protests. Smaller school-based ceremonies are still on for this week and next. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

Authorities detain a protester on the campus of Emory University during a pro-Palestinian demonstration, in Atlanta, Georgia, April 25, 2024. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart)

CORRECTS CAPTION TO NYPD ARREST PRO-PALESTINIAN DEMONSTRATORS New York Police Department officers arrest pro-Palestinian demonstrators on 114th Street and Amsterdam Avenue on Tuesday night, April 30, 2024, in New York. The NYPD also stormed Columbia University’s campus after Columbia University President Minouche Shafik called on the department to dismantle encampments and remove individuals from Hamilton Hall. (Seyma Bayram via AP)

Staff members of the Columbia Daily Spectator, the college newspaper, work into the night as police cleared out demonstrators from Columbia University's campus, late Tuesday, April 30, 2024, in New York. Left to right; Isabella Ramirez, editor in chief; Esha Karam, managing editor; Yvin Shin, head copy editor; Emily Forgash, deputy news editor; and Shea Vance, university news editor. (AP Photo/Jake Offenhartz)

FILE - Pro-Israel demonstrators gather for the "Bring Them Home Now" rally outside the Columbia University, April 26, 2024, in New York. Pro-Palestinian protesters have dominated university quads in the last two weeks, shutting down colleges and clashing with riot police. But there’s been a notable scarcity of student rallies in solidarity with Israelis. (AP Photo/Yuki Iwamura, File)