By Stephen Culp, Reuters
Photo: Tatarinov Andrey / 123RF
US stocks rebounded on Friday as investors shopped for bargains at the end of a tumultuous week in which US President Donald Trump's escalating trade war fuelled recession fears and doused risk appetite.
A broad rally sent all three major US stock indexes sharply higher, with recently battered tech-related megacaps enjoying a comeback. Every one of the so-called Magnificent 7 artificial intelligence-related momentum stocks was in positive territory, although six of them remain down on the year.
Chips were outperformers, rising 2.8 percent, while the FANG group of tech-adjacent momentum stocks advanced 2.7 percent.
"There's a lot of excitement over all of the AI-related developments in technology and I expect that it's going to continue," said Jed Ellerbroek, portfolio manager at Argent Capital, in St. Louis, Missouri.
"Those stocks have been underperforming - especially in the last month because of this flight to safety."
Still, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq remain on track for their fourth straight weekly losses. The Dow is on course for its third consecutive Friday-to-Friday dip.
Encouraging inflation data on Wednesday and Thursday was overshadowed this week by mounting uncertainties arising from Trump's chaotic policies, including quotidian tariff threats against the biggest US trading partners.
Those uncertainties sent investors fleeing from equities in favor of safe-haven assets, lifting gold prices past the US$3000 per ounce level for the first time ever.
"The market doesn't like the tariff stuff, the added uncertainty that keeps them from planning and making decisions," Ellerbroek added. "Trump is ... wreaking havoc, with his advisors talking about detox, about how maybe a recession is coming, maybe not. It's unsettling, indecisive, it's bad for the economy and bad for the stock market."
Those anxieties were laid bare by a dire report from the University of Michigan, which showed consumer sentiment plummeting to its most pessimistic level in nearly two years and one-year inflation expectations spiking to 4.9 percent.
The report echoes other recent downbeat survey data, including a Reuters/Ipsos poll of Americans conducted March 11-12 that showed 57 percent of survey participants believe Trump's policies will do more harm than good.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 584.51 points, or 1.43 percent, to 41,398.08, the S&P 500 gained 101.17 points, or 1.83 percent, at 5,622.69 and the Nasdaq Composite climbed 393.91 points, or 2.28 percent, to 17,696.92.
All 11 major sectors of the S&P 500 were higher, with energy and technology shares enjoying the largest percentage gains.
Tesla rose 3.7 percent following a report on the electric vehicle maker's plans to make a lower-cost version of its best-selling Model Y in Shanghai, aiming to regain ground lost during a price war in its second-largest market.
Nvidia's shares gained 4.4 percent ahead of next week's GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which is expected to culminate in a hotly anticipated keynote address from Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.84-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 62 new highs and 79 new lows on the NYSE.
On the Nasdaq, 3,277 stocks rose and 1,041 fell as advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 3.15-to-1 ratio.
The S&P 500 posted one new 52-week high and five new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 31 new highs and 142 new lows.
- Reuters
