Global Stocks: U.S. indices gained

Major U.S. stock indices advanced on Friday after several sessions of sharp swings.

Investors continued assessing the yuan devaluation. On Wednesday and Thursday stocks fluctuated much, but ended little changed. This means that investors are not sure how exactly this affects U.S. companies.

On Friday the Dow Jones industrial average climbed 69.15 points, or 0.4%, to 17477.40. The S&P 500 gained 8.15 points, or 0.4%, to 2091.54. The Nasdaq Composite rose 14.68 points, or 0.3%, to 5048.24. For the past week indices rose by 0.6%, 0.7% and 0.1% respectively.

This morning in Asia Hong Kong Hang Seng fell 0.99%, or 236.82 points, to 23,754.21. China Shanghai Composite Index declined 0.12%, or 4.73 points, to 3,960.61. The Nikkei added 0.25%, or 52.24 points, to 20,571.69.

Asian stocks outside Japan traded lower as the yuan stopped declining.

Japanese stocks climbed as Japan Q2 GDP data showed a smaller-than-expected contraction. The index fell by 0.4% in the second quarter compared to a 1% gain reported previously. Nevertheless the reading was better than a decline of 0.5% expected by economists. On an annualized basis Japanese economy contracted by 1.6% vs -1.9% expected.