The stock market rallied on Friday at the end of a whipsaw week, with some beaten down technology stocks stabilizing, even as investors continued to pivot toward more traditional companies in the market.
The S&P 500 rose 2 percent on Friday, its biggest one-day rise since May. The index was led by some of the big technology stocks that dominate the index, like Nvidia and Broadcom.
It was accompanied by continued gains for industrial, energy and financial stocks, reflected in the Dow Jones industrial average reaching a record high on Friday.
The Dow, which tracks 30 predominantly cyclical companies but also includes some big tech names like Microsoft and Apple, surpassed an index level of 50,000 points for the first time, closing at 50,115. The index climbed 2.5 percent on Friday, also its best day since May.
These more traditional industries, seen to be more closely linked to the ebb and flow of the economy, have struggled to keep pace with the runaway rise of technology stocks in recent years.
But worries have been mounting over the rapid growth of artificial intelligence and the high valuations of A.I. companies, which have often been built on the promise but not yet reality of the new technology. Lately, some of the more staid parts of the market have come back into vogue.
Caterpillar, for instance, the construction and mining equipment company, rose 7 percent on Friday, up 25 percent for the year. Banks have also rallied from earlier slide in January, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan both rising around 4 percent on Friday.
Despite Friday’s rise, the S&P 500 remained slightly lower for the week, recording its fourth down week out of six since the start of the year. The index remains 1.3 percent higher for the year after briefly dipping into negative territory on Thursday.
“Stocks are wrapping up a volatile week of trade on a high note,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, with the Dow’s rise above 50,0000 “clearing a major psychological barrier,” he added.
Joe Rennison writes about financial markets, a beat that ranges from chronicling the vagaries of the stock market to explaining the often-inscrutable trading decisions of Wall Street insiders.
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