US stocks ended a rocky week on a muted note on Friday, with the Dow dipping and NASDAQ advancing as fears about a global economic slowdown due to China tested sentiment.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed 11.76 points (0.07 percent) at 16,643.01.
The broad-based S&P 500 added 1.21 (0.06 percent) at 1,988.87, while the tech-rich NASDAQ Composite Index gained 15.62 (0.32 percent) at 4,828.32.
Photo: Reuters
Heading into Friday, the S&P 500 was up about 0.85 percent for the week after strong gains on Wednesday and Thursday compensated for deep losses the prior two days.
Global markets have been rocked by worries that a retreat in the Chinese equity market signals a major slowdown in the world’s second-biggest economy.
On Friday, the Shanghai index gained 4.82 percent. Equity markets in Paris and Frankfurt were lower on Friday, while London was up a bit.
Briefing.com analyst Patrick O’Hare described trade this week as “crazy,” adding: “That craziness isn’t likely to go away soon either.”
O’Hare said investors were feeling “mistrust” about price behavior following the gyrations this week.
“The speed at which the sell-off and the rebound occurred has left everyone grappling to explain why it happened, what it means, and what comes next,” he said. “No explanation is wholly sufficient and often matches the character of the market at the time it is provided.”
Petroleum-linked stocks were strong, with Dow member Chevron Corp gaining 3 percent, oil services titan Halliburton Co up 2.3 percent and Apache Corp up 4 percent.
Videogame developer Activision Blizzard Inc and airline United Continental Holdings both jumped following an S&P Dow Jones Indices announcement that they would be added to the S&P 500.
Activision advanced 4.3 percent, while United rose 4.8 percent.
Metals and oil producer Freeport-McMoRan Inc surged 7.1 percent as activist investor Carl Icahn disclosed an 8.5 percent stake in the company.
Icahn said in a securities filing that he will engage Freeport management on strategy and capital structure and may seek a board seat.
Bond prices rose. The yield on the 10-year US Treasury fell to 2.14 percent from 2.19 percent on Thursday, while the 30-year dropped to 2.88 percent from 2.93 percent. Bond prices and yields move inversely.
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