Higher trading on Friday capped a major comeback on Wall Street as late-stage gains largely wiped away Monday's heavy losses, ending a turbulent week with a high note. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose close to 0.5%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) increased 0.5%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) gained 0.1% or about 50 points.
Markets closed the most volatile week of the 2024 campaign. Monday saw the worst rout of the year, and Wall Street's "fear gauge," the CBOE Volatility Index (^VIX), soared to its highest levels since the throes of the pandemic.
By Thursday, a reassuring look at the labor market, in the form of the normally routine report on weekly jobless claims, gave investors reason to buy back in. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq both rallied over 2%, with the S&P posting its best day since late 2022 — a remarkable feat, considering the breadth of 2024's rally overall.
In the end, with a modest rally on Friday, the major indexes wrapped the week near where they started. All the more reason, as many strategists told Yahoo Finance's Julie Hyman in the Morning Brief newsletter, to stay calm amid the chaos.
In individual movers, Nvidia (NVDA) was once again a market focus after wild swings of its own this week. Its stock closed down slightly, as investors look for another catalyst in the AI trade. Nvidia, whose earnings are scheduled to arrive at the end of the month, is the last of the Magnificent Seven companies to report.
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