Shares end mostly higher, breaking a 3-week losing streak
NEW YORK — Wall Street added to its recent gains on Friday with a broad rally that snapped the market’s three-week losing streak.
SThe &P 500 closed 1.5% higher, its third straight gain, and ended the week up 3.7%. That makes it the benchmark index’s best week back to July.
Big gains for technology companies pushed the Nasdaq composite to a 2.1% gain, while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1.2%. Both indexes also posted their first weekly gains in four weeks.
The latest gains marked a holiday-shortened week of trading on Wall Street, where the market recouped some of what was lost after a mid-August slump that wiped out much of the gains from a midsummer rally.
A weaker dollar and a reversal among short sellers ̵[ads1]2; traders who bet the market will go lower — appeared to be responsible for some of Friday’s rally, said Sameer Samana, senior global market strategist at Wells Fargo Investment Institute.
“You had a little positive catalyst in the dollar coming off today, and lo and behold, that extreme positioning had to kind of wind down,” he said. “We probably wouldn’t read too much into it. For us, the trend in (shares) is still lower.”
SThe &P 500 rose 61.18 points to 4,067.36. The index is still down around 15% so far this year.
The Dow added 377.19 points to 32,151.71, while the Nasdaq gained 250.18 points to 12,112.31.
Technology stocks and retailers had some of the biggest gains. Microsoft rose 2.3% and Amazon rose 2.7%.
DocuSign jumped 10.5% after the electronic signature company reported strong second-quarter sales and raised its subscription forecast.
All 11 industrial sectors in the benchmark index SThe &P 500 rose, although household goods and utility makers, which are typically considered less risky investments, lagged the market. The US crude oil price rose 3.9%, helping to boost shares in the energy sector. Exxon Mobil rose 1.7 percent.
Smaller company shares also showed solid gains. The Russell 2000 index rose 35.94 points, or 1.9%, to 1,882.85.
Bond yields mostly rose. The yield on the 10-year Treasury, which affects mortgage and other borrowing rates, fell to 3.31 from 3.33% late Thursday. The two-year Treasury yield, which tends to track expectations of Federal Reserve action, rose to 3.57% from 3.51%.
The Fed has been the main focus for investors as they try to determine whether the central bank’s plan to cool the hottest inflation in four decades will work or possibly tip an already slowing economy into recession.
Stocks spent July and part of August gaining ground on hopes that the Fed would ease interest rate hikes, but fell in recent weeks as it became clear that the central bank was determined to raise interest rates.
The central bank has already raised interest rates four times this year, and markets expect it to deliver another big increase of three-quarters of a percentage point at its next meeting in two weeks. Fed officials, including Chairman Jerome Powell, have all reaffirmed the central bank’s willingness to raise interest rates until inflation is under control.
That has left investors watching economic data closely for signs that inflation may be cooling. The calendar for such updates will be busy next week.
The Ministry of Labor will release its report on consumer prices for August on Tuesday and a report on wholesale prices on Wednesday. On Thursday, Wall Street will receive an update on retail sales for August.
