U.S. stocks rallied into the close Friday to wrap up a roller-coaster week, buoyed by rebounding technology stocks.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 564.69 points, or 1.7%, to 34,725.47. The blue-chip average posted its best day since Dec. 6 after being down more than 350 points at its lows. The S&P 500 added 2.4% to close at 4,431.85 — its best session since June 2020. The Nasdaq Composite rallied 3.1% to 13,770.57.
Shares of Apple jumped nearly 7% after a stellar quarterly results, boosting the stock averages. The company reported its largest single quarter in terms of revenue ever even amid supply challenges and the lingering effects of the pandemic.
Big Tech names Microsoft, Amazon, Facebook-parent Meta and Google-parent Alphabet all closed Friday higher after being beaten up earlier in the week, providing support to the indexes.
On the downside, Chevron shares fell around 3% after missing Wall Street earnings expectations. Dow component Caterpillar dipped about 5% even after it topped profit estimates.
The major indexes experienced outsized swings each day this week — including the Dow making up a more than 1,000-point intraday deficit for the first time ever to close higher on Monday. The S&P 500 posted an intraday range of at least 2.25% every day this week, according to Bespoke Investment Group.
“The huge intraday movements are indicative of the challenge that the market now faces, which is that financial conditions are going to be tightening,” said Yung-Yu Ma, chief investment strategist at BMO Wealth Management. “As new information comes in, as markets overreact in one direction or another, this type of volatility and some of these swings are probably going to be with us for some time, given the nature of what the market’s trying to price in.”
The Dow finished the week 1.3% higher and the S&P 500 added 0.8% on the week, breaking a three-week losing streak. The Nasdaq Composite finished little changed week to date.
“It has been a frustrating week for investors. It’s kind of this push-pull or tug-of-war between bulls and bears,” Darrell Cronk, chief investment officer for wealth and investment management at Wells Fargo, told CNBC’s “Squawk on the Street.” “The lows may not be in yet on this kind of correction.”
The Nasdaq sits about 15% from its high. The Russell 2000, the small-cap benchmark, is in a bear market, down 19.9% from its intraday record.
With January ending Monday, the S&P 500 is on pace for its weakest month since March 2020, down 7%. The Dow could see its worst month since October 2020.
The market’s fear gauge, the Cboe Volatility Index, shot up to its highest level since October 2020 and traded above 30 earlier this week.
Investors on Friday continued to digest the Federal Reserve’s pivot to tighter policy.
The Federal Open Market Committee indicated Wednesday that it likely soon raise interest rates for the first time in more than three years as part of a broader tightening of historically easy monetary policy. Markets are now pricing in five quarter-percentage-point interest rate hikes in 2022, though the long-range expectation for rates is little changed.
“As advertised, this week was dominated by the Fed meeting and parsing its Wednesday statement and comments from Fed Chair Powell,” Chris Hussey, a managing director at Goldman Sachs, said in a note. “And on Friday, the Fed’s hawkish tilt received as-expected support from another high inflation print.”
December’s core personal consumption expenditures price index, the Fed’s preferred inflation gauge, jumped 4.9% from the year prior, the Commerce Department reported Friday. The PCE jump is higher than economists expected and the hottest reading since September 1983. Along with the inflation numbers, personal income rose 0.3% for the month, a touch lower than the 0.4% estimate.