Markets End Wild Week With a Solid Gain

Stocks ended the week with a strong afternoon push to end solidly in positive territory. Friday’s trading in US markets offered a soothing coda to what’s been a wild week. From Monday’s astonishing plummet for oil to Thursday’s sudden disappearance of a morning stock rally, markets pinballed as the mood swung from fear to hope and back again, per the AP. For the day, the Dow rose 260 points to 23,775, the S&P 500 rose 38 points to 2,836, and the Nasdaq rose 139 points to 8,634. All the gains were between 1% and 2%.

“The market sort of feels like Dorothy coming to the crossroads and has yet to meet the scarecrow to tell her which way to go,” said Sam Stovall, chief investment strategist at CFRA. Reports piled higher through the week showing the pandemic is bludgeoning the economy even more than economists had feared. It’s so severe that a heavily divided Congress has reached bipartisan agreement on massive support for the economy, and President Trump signed a bill Friday to send another nearly $500 billion into the economy, including loans for small businesses and aid for hospitals.

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