NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is closing its dreary February on a somewhat brighter note, and U.S. stock indexes are rising Friday following an economic report that included both encouraging and discouraging trends.

The S&P 500 was 0.7% higher in late trading to trim a loss for the month that's now on track to be its worst since December instead of April. It had fallen in five of the prior six days after weaker-than-expected reports on the economy and worries about President Donald Trump's tariffs knocked the index off its all-time high set last week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 255 points, or 0.6%, with a little less than an hour remaining in trading, and the Nasdaq composite was 0.7% higher.

Much of the recent damage has focused on what had been the market's biggest winners in recent years, whose momentum had seemed nearly impossible to stop at times. Stocks that flew in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology have slumped sharply. Bitcoin, meanwhile, has dropped more than 20% from its record.

But Nvidia, which has become one of the market's most influential stocks, rose 1.6% Friday to help support the market, recovering some of its sharp 8.5% tumble from Thursday.

The latest report on the U.S. economy released Friday included some encouraging news for the entire market: Inflation across the country decelerated a bit and behaved pretty much exactly as economists expected, according to the measure that the Federal Reserve prefers to use.

That in turn could give the Federal Reserve leeway to continue cutting its main interest rate at some point later this year, which could help goose the economy. The Fed has been keeping rates on hold so far this year after cutting them sharply late last year, in large part because of concerns about potentially stubborn inflation.

But Friday's report also said that U.S. households pulled back on their spending during January. That’s dangerous because their strong spending has been a major reason the U.S. economy has avoided a recession despite high interest rates.

U.S. consumers had already given big hints they're under pressure and worried. Inflation is still high, even if it's not as bad as its peak from 2022, and a widespread worry is that tariffs announced by Trump could push prices for the cost of living even higher.

Wall Street hopes that all the talk about tariffs are merely a tool Trump is using to negotiate with other countries and that he’ll ultimately pull back on them, which would mean less pain for the global economy than initially feared.

But even if that were the case, recent reports have shown all the talk has already pushed U.S. consumers to brace for much higher inflation in the future. At some point, such worries could drive their behavior, which could drag on the economy even without tariffs.

All the uncertainty around not only tariffs but also deregulation and other potential moves could mean “if the market doesn’t see Trump moving towards more market-friendly policies, the level of trust could continue eroding,” Bank of America economists wrote in a BofA Global Research report.

The S&P 500 has already lost most of the bounce it received after Trump's election in November.

Of course, much of January's drop in spending by U.S. households could have simply been a result of painfully cold weather around the country and other anomalies. But it also followed several signals of slowing growth for the U.S. economy, which closed 2024 running at a solid pace.

Most stocks within the S&P 500 rose on Friday, led by AES after the energy company reported profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts' expectations. CEO Andrés Gluski also said it's seeing strong demand from AI data centers and new U.S. manufacturing plants, and AES stock jumped 12.1%.

Signet Jewelers rose 6% after an investment firm, Select Equity Group, amassed a nearly 10% ownership stake in the retailer and said it's pushing the board to sell the company or find another way to boost its stock price.

They helped offset a 5.3% drop for Dell, which reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected but fell short on its revenue.

In the bond market, Treasury yields sank again. The yield on the 10-year Treasury slipped to 4.22% from 4.26% late Thursday. It’s down sharply from last month, when it was approaching 4.80%, as worries have grown about where the U.S. economy is heading.

In stock markets abroad, indexes fell sharply in Asia as worries about tariffs continued.

China’s Commerce Ministry issued a statement Friday protesting Trump’s decision to double tariffs on Chinese products to 20%, saying it violated international trade rules and would add to the “burden on American companies and consumers and undermine the stability of the global industrial chain.”

Indexes tumbled 3.3% in Hong Kong, 2% in Shanghai, 3.4% in Seoul and 2.9% in Tokyo.

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AP Business Writers Matt Ott and Elaine Kurtenbach contributed.

An American flag is displayed on the outside of the New York Stock Exchange in New York, Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig)

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A person walks in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

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People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

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People stand in front of an electronic stock board showing Japan's Nikkei index at a securities firm Friday, Feb. 28, 2025, in Tokyo. (AP Photo/Eugene Hoshiko)

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