S&P 500 ends up 17% in year's first half, best since 1997

Wall Street stocks advanced Friday, concluding a banner first half of the year even as a prolonged US-China trade war led to losses on the week.The broad-based S&P 500 finished the session at 2,941.76, up 0.6 percent for the day.As it has all week, Friday's session was shadowed by anticipation of talks between US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping.