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Wall Street rises on energy boost; jobs data, Powell in focus

Wall Street's main indexes ticked up in choppy trading, boosted by a jump in energy stocks, while investors assessed a key jobs report and awaited comments from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell for clues on the health of the U.S. economy. At 09:51 a.m. ET the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 124.23 points, or 0.29%, to 42,703.31, the S&P 500 gained 24.38 points, or 0.46%, to 5,764.57 and the Nasdaq Composite gained 120.10 points, or 0.66%, to 18,186.29. Energy led sectoral gains on the S&P 500 with a 1.8% rise, tracking a 2% increase in oil prices.

Crypto leaders meet at Trump's summit with strategic reserve in focus

(Reuters) -U.S. President Donald Trump wooed the cryptocurrency industry's elite at the White House on Friday, hosting a first-of-its-kind summit focused on his plans for a government-owned stockpile of digital assets. Trump welcomed a wide range of industry players including Zach Witkoff, one of the founders of the president's own crypto business, World Liberty Financial, his social media posts showed. In addition to top administration officials and lawmakers, guests in the White House's State Dining Room included MicroStrategy CEO Michael Saylor, Coinbase co-founder and CEO Brian Armstrong, investors Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, and entrepreneur David Bailey.

New York workers’ return to office ignites deal hopes in battered real estate market

Investors including Blackstone and wealthy individuals are scouting for office properties in New York as companies call employees back to the office, fueling a nascent recovery in the battered commercial real estate market. The increasing appetite for offices in New York and beyond could signal a broader economic recovery for major cities worldwide as many workers return in person five days a week, lifting demand for local services. Real estate investors, consultants and bankers say demand is rising for top-quality offices in New York, spurring them to strike more deals.

Rocky US stock market faces inflation data test

A critical inflation report in the coming week could further rattle an increasingly tumultuous U.S. stock market, with investors worried about an economic growth slowdown and President Donald Trump's tariffs. Investors were grappling with dramatic policy change around the world. Trump's back-and-forth implementation of fresh tariffs on Mexico, Canada and China exacerbated broad concerns about the economy.

Fed's Powell gets chance to address trade war, stagflation fears

A soft landing from inflation may still be in sight, but when Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell speaks in New York on Friday he will be facing a tangled set of new risks to that long-sought goal, from a global trade war that could reignite price pressures to hints public expectations may be shifting in a bad way for the U.S. central bank. Powell will deliver his remarks to an economic conference just ahead of the communications blackout for the Fed's March 18-19 policy meeting. It will be his chance to publicly assess the still-developing economic impact of the expansive tariffs President Donald Trump has slapped on imports from major U.S. trading partners, with more expected, the new administration's efforts to downsize the federal government and contract spending, and stricter immigration rules.