Stocks on Wall Street shook off a weak start and closed slightly higher Friday, snapping a four-week losing streak.
- The Dow rose 32.03 points, or 0.1%, to 41,985.35, closing out the week up 1.2%.
- The S&P 500 rose 4.67 points, or 0.1%, to 5,667.56, finishing the week up 0.5%.
- The Nasdaq composite rose 92.43 points, or 0.5%, to 17,784.05, up 0.2% for the week.
Technology stocks, which had been the heaviest weights on the market in the early going Friday, the AP reports, bounced back to offset a big share of the declines elsewhere in the S&P 500. The sector has been at the center of much of the market’s recent sell-off in a reversal from the market-driving gains throughout the previous year. The stocks are among the most valuable on Wall Street and have outsize impacts on the whether the market gains or loses ground. Apple rose about 2%, and Microsoft added 1.1%. Another Big Tech stock, Nvidia, fell 0.7%, while Micron Technology slid 8% for the biggest decline among S&P 500 stocks. Nike slumped 5.5%, FedEx 6.4%, and homebuilder Lennar 4%.
Stocks have been losing ground for weeks over uncertainty about the direction of the US economy. A trade war between the US and its key trading partners threatens to worsen inflation and hurt both consumers and businesses. Inflation remains above the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2%, and tariffs could hurt the central bank’s efforts to ease the rate of inflation. President Trump has set an April 2 deadline to impose more tariffs on trading partners. It follows a series of other deadlines that have been set for tariffs only to be postponed, sometimes at the last minute. “Investors are confused, but there’s a lot less panic infusing the market,” said Mark Hackett, chief market strategist at Nationwide. (More Wall Street stories.)