Stocks Wrap up Rough Week



Stocks seesawed on Friday as Wall Street attempted to find its footing after a brutal week of selling.

The Dow Jones Industrials lost 41.99 points to 29,885.08.

The Dow briefly bounced above the 30,000 mark after falling below that level on Thursday for the first time since January 2021. The 30-stock average is down 5% for the week, on track for its 11th negative week in 12.

The S&P 500 regained 7.68 points to 3,674.45.

The S&P 500 was down 6% headed for its worst weekly performance since March 2020. All 11 of its sectors are at least 15% below their recent highs.

The NASDAQ Composite recovered 152.25 points, or 1.4%, to 10,798.35. Still, the tech-heavy NASDAQ is down about 5% for the week.

Beaten-up tech shares staged a rally. Investors have heavily sold off the growth sector as rates rise. Shares of Tesla, Amazon and Netflix rose nearly 3%.

Apple, Nvidia and Microsoft added 2%. Travel stocks Airbnb, Carnival and Norwegian Cruise Line also rebounded, jumping 7% each.

The Dow moved higher on Friday, buoyed by a 5% gain from American Express. Boeing and Salesforce rose more than 3% each.

Consumer discretionary, communication services and information technology jumped more than 1% but are off more than 30% from their 52-week highs. Energy continued its retreat, falling 5%.

The moves come as investors are increasingly worried about a potential economic slowdown. Several key pieces of economic data fell short of forecasts this week, ranging from May retail sales to housing starts.

Additionally, the Federal Reserve raised its benchmark interest rate by the most since 1994.

Market volatility could have been heightened Friday thanks to “quadruple witching.” This refers to the simultaneous expiration of stock index futures, single-stock futures, stock options and stock index options.

This event happens once a quarter and typically leads to a surge in trading volume, making for choppy trading action as traders close out positions.

Treasury prices eked higher, lowering yields to 3.23% from Thursday’s 3.25%. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Oil prices staggered $7.47 to $110.12 U.S. a barrel.

Gold prices faltered $9.80 to $1,840.10 U.S. an ounce.