WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the substantial downturn seen over the course of the previous session, stocks moved back to the upside during trading on Friday. With the upward move on the day, the Dow and the S&P 500 reached new record intraday highs.
The major averages gave back ground going into the close but remained firmly positive. The Dow advanced 247.15 points or 0.6 percent to 40,000.90, the Nasdaq climbed 115.04 points or 0.6 percent to 18,398.45 and the S&P 500 rose 30.81 points or 0.6 percent to 5,615.35.
For the week, the Dow shot up by 1.6 percent, the S&P 500 jumped by 0.9 percent and the Nasdaq increased by 0.3 percent.
The rebound on Wall Street came as traders looked to pick up stocks at somewhat reduced levels following the steep drop seen on Thursday, which partly reflected a rotation out of leading tech stocks like Nvidia (NVDA).
Shares of Nvidia jumped by 1.5 percent on the day after the AI darling plunged by 5.6 percent in the previous session.
Traders also remained optimistic about the outlook for interest rates even though the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices in the U.S. increased by slightly more than expected in the month of June.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand rose by 0.2 percent in June following a revised unchanged reading in May.
Economists had expected producer prices to inch up by 0.1 percent compared to the 0.2 percent dip originally reported for the previous month.
The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 2.6 percent in June from an upwardly revised 2.4 percent in May.
The annual rate of producer price growth was expected to creep up to 2.3 percent from the 2.2 percent originally reported for the previous month.
Despite the advance by the broader markets, shares of Wells Fargo (WFC) moved sharply lower after the company reported weaker than expected net interest income for the second quarter.
Financial giants JPMorgan Chase (JPM) and Citigroup (C) also moved to the downside after reporting their second quarter results.
Sector News
Networking stocks extended the strong upward move seen during Thursday's session, driving the NYSE Arca Networking Index up by 1.6 percent to its best closing level in over two years.
Considerable strength also remained visible among housing stocks, as reflected by the 1.6 percent gain posted by the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index. The index ended the day at a nearly two-month closing high.
Semiconductor stocks also saw significant strength after falling sharply on Thursday, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index climbing by 1.3 percent.
Steel, oil service and computer hardware stocks also showed notable moves to the upside, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Friday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index plummeted by 2.5 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index surged by 2.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets all moved to the upside on the day. While the French CAC 40 Index shot up by 1.3 percent, the German DAX Index jumped by 1.1 and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction after moving sharply higher in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by less than a basis point to 4.189 percent.
Looking Ahead
Next week's trading may be impacted by reaction to reports on retail sales, industrial production, import and export prices and housing starts.
Earnings news is also likely to attract attention, with Goldman Sachs (GS), Bank of America (BAC), Morgan Stanley (MS), UnitedHealth (UNH), Netflix (NFLX) and American Express (AXP) among the companies due to report their quarterly results.
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