Wall Street, dollar firm ahead of big week for market risk

Wall Street and the dollar firmed on Friday as investors girded themselves for the week ahead, which includes a Federal Reserve policy meeting, crucial corporate results and US President Donald Trump's August 1 deadline for negotiating trade deals.

"Some deals will be done and talks will continue, and Trump may push out the deadline further," said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York. "Trump's process is to shock and then be reasonable in terms of tariffs."

All three indexes were modestly green in early trading and were on course for weekly gains.

Gold lost some shine, pressured by the dollar as healthy risk appetites lured investors away from the safe-haven metal.

Intel's shares dropped 8.8% after the chipmaker forecast steeper-than-expected quarterly losses and said it had halted or scrapped new factory projects in the US and Europe. More than a third of the companies in the S&P 500 have posted results, 80% of which have beaten estimates, according to LSEG data.

Analysts now expect year-on-year second-quarter earnings growth of 7.7%, compared with the 5.8% estimate as of July 1.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 113.54 points, or 0.25%, to 44,806.30, the S&P 500 rose 16.19 points, or 0.26%, to 6,379.67 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 44.40 points, or 0.21%, to 21,102.36.

European shares gave back some of the previous session's gains as market participants parsed mixed corporate earnings and awaited developments in the US-EU trade negotiations.

The dollar gained strength but remained on course for its biggest drop in a month as investors focused on tariff negotiations and central bank meetings on the calendar for next week. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies, rose 0.28% to 97.72, with the euro down 0.2% at $1.173.