Wall Street on Friday staged a furious rally in the waning moments of the session after US President Donald Trump declared a national emergency to combat COVID-19, although major averages still suffered sharp losses for the week.
In a volatile session, all three main indices jumped more than 6 percent in early trading before paring to a gain of as little as 0.55 percent on the S&P 500 before rallying toward the close as Trump made the announcement with industry leaders of about US$50 billion in federal aid to fight the disease.
“The initial take, he started talking about US$50 billion, the market asked: ‘Where is that going?’” OakBrook Investments LLC cochief investment officer Peter Jankovskis said in Lisle, Illinois. “But as he’s been bringing these various leaders to the front and they have been talking about what they are doing, that is really what the market is responding to.”
The indices were still about 20 percent below record highs hit in the middle of last month, and each saw declines of at least 8 percent for the week. Since hitting the highs, markets have been besieged with big swings in the market, nearly matching as many days with declines of at least 1 percent as all of last year.
Friday’s surge was the biggest one-day percentage gain for the S&P 500 since Oct. 28, 2008.
The S&P 500 on Friday gained 230.38 points, or 9.3 percent, to 2,711.02, an 8.8 percent plunge from a close of 2,972.37 on March 6.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average on Friday rose 1,985 points, or 9.4 percent, to 23,185.62, plummeting 10.4 percent from 25,864.78 a week earlier.
The NASDAQ Composite on Friday added 673.07 points, or 9.4 percent, to 7,874.88, a drop of 8.2 percent from a close of 8,575.62 a week earlier.
All of the main S&P 500 subindices were trading higher, with financial stocks rising 13.23 percent as expectations of further liquidity measures by the US Federal Reserve pushed up US Treasury yields, in what has become a very thin market.
The S&P 500 energy index added 8.84 percent.
Travel stocks, hammered in the rout, were trending upward, with the S&P 1500 airlines index up 11.58 percent.
Hotel operators Marriott International Inc, Hilton Worldwide Holdings Inc and Hyatt Hotels Corp all gained at least 1 percent.
Boeing Co jumped 9.92 percent, but suffered its biggest weekly drop in its history on rising concerns about the company’s growing cash burn.
Apple Inc rose 11.98 percent and was among the top boosts to the S&P 500 and the Dow, as the iPhone maker said that it would reopen all 42 of its branded stores in China.
Additional reporting by staff writer
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