US stocks rose on Friday, erasing the market’s losses from earlier in the week and helping Wall Street avoid a second straight weekly drop. The benchmark S&P 500 rose 65 points, or 1.6%, to 3,974, and some of the biggest gains came from companies whose profits are likely to jump the most if COVID-19 vaccinations and massive spending by the US government juice the economy as much as economists expect. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 453 points, or 1.3%, to 33.072, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq composite rose 161 points, or 1.2%, to 13,138.
Stock prices have been largely churning in place during recent weeks with momentum often shifting sharply, sometimes by the hour, per the AP. Rising expectations for a supercharged economic recovery are supporting many stocks on one hand, while worries about the possibility of higher inflation and rising interest rates are undercutting the market on the other. On Friday, stocks of companies that would benefit from more investment in infrastructure rallied sharply. For example, Steelmaker Nucor climbed 6.9% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500, and miner Freeport-McMoRan rose 3.8%.
(More
stock market stories.)