U.S. stocks rose on Friday in response to a fresh round of bank earnings and promising economic data, as fears of a 100-basis-point interest rate hike by the Federal Reserve eased fears of rising inflation.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 2.15% to 31,288.26 points, the S&P 500 rose 1.92% to 3863.16 and the Nasdaq composite rose 1.79% to 11,452.42.
Despite Friday’s rally, all major indexes ended the week with losses, with the Dow Jones down 0.2%, the S&P and Nasdaq down 0.9% and 1.6%, respectively.
A fresh round of banking results from Wells Fargo and Citigroup on Friday showed more insight into the state of the economy, with Wells Fargo shares rising about 6.2% even as quarterly profit fell 48% as the bank set aside funds for bad loans.
Citigroup stock also rose 13.2% as it beat estimates and benefited from current price gains.
Along with fresh bank earnings, traders digested strong early consumer confidence data and beat expectations for retail sales.
The numbers appeared to allay fears that the central bank would raise rates by 100 basis points at upcoming policy meetings, and pointed to an increase in consumer retail spending despite inflation reaching record levels.
Affected tech stocks also rose on Friday, with platforms Meta, Salesforce and Amazon up 4.2%, 3.9% and 2.6% respectively, and Netflix up 8.2%.
Shares of Pinterest rose nearly 16.2% after the Wall Street Journal report from activist investment management firm Elliott Management. It captured over 9% share of the social media giant.
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