US stocks rallied on Friday to close out their dreary February on a brighter note.
- The Dow rose 601.41 points, or 1.4%, to 43,840.91. For the week, the Dow was up 1%.
- The S&P 500 rose 92.93 points, or 1.6%, to 5,954.50. That's down 1% for the week.
- The Nasdaq rose 302.86 points, or 1.6%, to 18,847.28—a drop of 3.5% for the week.
Much of the recent damage had focused on the market's biggest winners of recent years, whose momentum had seemed nearly impossible to stop at times, the AP reports. Stocks that flew in the frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology slumped sharply, for example. Bitcoin, meanwhile, dropped more than 20% from its record. Many of those beaten-down areas of the market jumped Friday to recover some of their losses. Nvidia, which has become one of the market's most influential stocks, rose 3.9% following its 8.5% tumble Thursday and was the strongest force lifting the S&P 500. Even Bitcoin bounced back above $84,000 after falling below $79,000 during the morning.
Most stocks within the S&P 500 rose on Friday, led by AES after the energy company reported profit for the latest quarter that blew past analysts' expectations. CEO Andrés Gluski said it's seeing strong demand from AI data centers and new US manufacturing plants, and AES stock jumped 11.7%. Signet Jewelers rose 5.2% after an investment firm, Select Equity Group, amassed a nearly 10% ownership stake in the retailer and said it's pushing the board to sell the company or find another way to boost its stock price. They helped offset a 4.7% drop for Dell, which reported stronger profit for the latest quarter than analysts expected but fell short on its revenue. (More Wall Street stories.)
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