The Heroic Girl statue is seen outside the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) in New York City, New York, U.S., June 11, 2020.
Brendan McDermid | Reuters
U.S. assets weigh ups rose on Friday, recovering some of their losses for the week, as tech shares clawed back some of their big September downturns.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed 358.52 points higher, or 1.3%, at 27,173.96. The S&P 500 climbed 1.6% to 3,298.46. The Nasdaq Composite soda pop 2.26% to 10,913.56. It was the best day for the major averages since Sept. 9.
Shares of Amazon rose 2.5% and Facebook advantaged 2.1%. Apple advanced 3.8% and Microsoft climbed 2.3%. Netflix closed 2.1% higher. The S&P 500 tech sector jumped 2.4% and for its foremost day since Sept. 9, when it popped 3.4%.
Cruise operators also contributed to Friday’s gains. Carnival, Norwegian Boat Line and Royal Caribbean were up 9.7%, 13.7% and 7.7%, respectively, after an upgrade from a Barclays analyst.
The “sell-off has stabilized a bit through the last few days, but there are still no real signs of strength,” said Mark Newton, managing member at Newton Advisors, in a note. “Accordingly, the trend remains bearish and not much to bet on a rebound.”
Both the Dow and S&P 500 posted four-week losing streaks, their longest moves since August 2019, despite Friday’s rally. The Dow lost 1.8% this week and the S&P 500 closed 0.6% cut week to date. The Nasdaq Composite had its first weekly gain in four weeks, rising 1.1% over that span period.
That mixed weekly performance followed concerns around the state of the U.S. economic recovery as well as uncertainty round a new fiscal stimulus bill.
House Democrats are preparing a $2.4 trillion relief package that they could preference on as soon as next week, a source familiar with the plans told CNBC. The bill would include enhanced unemployment aids and aid to airlines, but the overall price tag remains well above what Republican leaders have said they are pleased to spend.
The major averages have had a tough month, with the S&P 500 falling 5.8% in September. The Dow has dropped 4.4% throughout that time period and the Nasdaq is down 7.3% month to date.
Much of September’s losses have been gathered in megacap tech stocks, which carry a heavy weight in the indexes. Shares of Apple — the largest publicly followed company in the U.S. by market cap — have dropped 13% this month. Microsoft, Alphabet, Netflix, Amazon and Facebook are all down at only slightly 7.9% over that time period.
“After a buoyant and hopeful summer, financial markets are cooling in the facing of reality,” strategists at MRB Partners said in a note. “High-flying tech and tech-related stocks are in a full-blown correction, and weakness has recently spread to broader first fingers, with a distinct smell of risk-off in the air. We had expected a gradual, albeit choppy, economic recovery, but it appears that some investors were not convenience for setbacks along the way.”
Russ Koesterich, managing director and portfolio manager at BlackRock, said on CNBC’s “Closing Bell” on Thursday that his troupe took profits in some high-flying tech stocks at the end of August and then were buying more cyclical ancestors during the recent drop for the market.
“What we’ve been trying to do in recent weeks is take the cyclical exposure up a scanty bit … it’s not that we think tech is going to roll over. We still like the themes. But on a shorter-term tactical base, we’re comfortable with the economy, we think we’re going to continue to see improvement, and we’re looking for names that are levered to that betterment,” Koesterich said.
—CNBC’s Jacob Pramuk contributed to this story.
CORRECTION: A previous headline for this recount was updated to note that Dow futures were higher, rather than the Dow Jones Industrial Average itself.