Wall Street drifts as it waits for a highly anticipated US-China meeting on trade

U.S. stocks are drifting Friday as Wall Street heads toward the end of an unusually quiet week.

The S&P 500 was virtually unchanged in midday trading and on track for a dip of 0.4% for the week. This may be the first week in seven where the index at the heart of many 401(k) accounts moves by less than 1.5%, after swinging sharply first on fears about President Donald Trump’s trade war and then on hopes that he’ll relent on some of his tariffs.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 65 points, or 0.2%, as of 11:45 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was flat.

The big event for the week is likely coming on Saturday, when trading will be closed in financial markets. That’s when high-level U.S. and Chinese officials will be meeting in Switzerland for their first talks since Trump launched an escalating trade war between the world’s two largest economies. The fear among investors and economists is that a recession could hit if the United States doesn’t reach trade deals that lower its tariffs by enough and quickly enough.

Trump on Friday floated the idea of bringing tariffs on Chinese imports down to 80% from their current 145% rate, but he said it’ll be up to Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, who will be in Switzerland. While that would indeed be a reduction, it would still be high, and Trump’s posting on social media caused a brief jolt in financial markets. Futures for U.S. stocks sank immediately.

But markets later calmed as the wait continued for what U.S. and Chinese officials will say after their meeting.

Trump also talked up the potential for more trade deals that could be on the way, following his announcement the day before on an agreement with the United Kingdom.

“Many Trade Deals in the hopper, all good (GREAT!) ones!” he said on his Truth Social network.

In the meantime, the flow of earnings reports for the start of the year from companies is slowing but still moving the market.

Lyft rallied 22.3% after delivering a stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company said it reached the highest weekly ridership levels in its history during the last week of March.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing, the chip giant known as TSMC, offered an encouraging report after saying its revenue in April leaped 48.1% from a year earlier. That sent its stock that trades in the United States up 1.8%.

Insulet jumped 20.1% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500 after the medical device company reported stronger results for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The company, which sells tubeless insulin pump technology, also raised its forecast for an underlying revenue trend for the full year.

They helped offset a 7.3% drop for Expedia. The travel website, which owns Vrbo and Hotels.com, reported a stronger profit than analysts expected, but it also said demand was weaker than it expected during the quarter. It highlighted softer-than-expected demand in the United States, as well as a nearly 30% decline in bookings from Canada to its southern neighbor.

Other travel-related companies, including Hilton and Airbnb, have reported a similar softening in travel demand to the U.S. in their recent earnings reports.

Sweetgreen wilted by 17.9% after the salad seller reported a slightly larger loss for the latest quarter than analysts expected. The fast-casual restaurant chain also gave a forecast for revenue over the full year that fell just short of analysts’ estimates.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose modestly in Europe after finishing mixed in Asia.

Stocks added 0.4% in Hong Kong but fell 0.3% in Shanghai after China reported that its exports rose at a faster-than-expected 8.1% annual pace in April. Exports to the United States dropped more than 20%, however, as Trump’s steep tariff increases took effect. China is the world’s biggest exporter.

In the bond market, the yield on the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.36% from 4.37% late Thursday.

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AP Writers Jiang Junzhe and Matt Ott contributed.