Stocks ended higher on Friday, extending a rally started the day before after a soft U.S. inflation reading raised hopes the Federal Reserve would get less aggressive with interest rate hikes.
“What we’re really seeing today is simply a follow-through on yesterday. There’s a lot of cash sitting on the sidelines that is being put to work,” said Tim Ghriskey, senior portfolio strategist at Ingalls & Snyder in New York.
“Perhaps it signals some type of bottom being put in the market, some type of line drawn in the sand. But even if we put in a bottom, we’re a long way away from setting new highs,” Ghriskey said.
The S&P/TSX Composite index closed up 121.15 points, or 0.61%, at 20,111.51, bringing its gain for the week to 3.4%. Both energy and tech sectors gained more than 2%.
Oil prices settled higher on Friday but fell week-on-week after health authorities in China eased some of the country’s heavy COVID-19 curbs, raising hopes for improved economic activity and demand in the world’s top crude importer.
U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures settled up $2.49, or 2.9%, at $88.96 a barrel. It was down nearly 4% on the week.
The easing curbs include shortening quarantine times for close contacts of cases and inbound travelers by two days, as well as eliminating a penalty on airlines for bringing in infected passengers.
Algonquin Power & Utilities was a notable decliner on the TSX, plummeting more than 19% after worse-than-expected earnings and guidance.
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 climbed 0.93% to end the session at 3,993.05 points. The Nasdaq gained 1.88% to 11,323.33 points, while Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.10% to 33,749.18 points.
Amazon jumped 4.3%, with Apple and Microsoft both up more than 1% and contributing to the Nasdaq’s gain.
On Thursday, the S&P 500 and the Nasdaq racked up their biggest daily percentage gains in more than 2-1/2 years as annual inflation slipped below 8% for the first time in eight months.
Declines in healthcare stocks limited the Dow Jones Industrial Average’s gain, with UnitedHealth Group down 4.1% for the day.
Adding some nervousness on Wall Street, crypto exchange FTX said it would start U.S. bankruptcy proceedings and that CEO Sam Bankman-Fried resigned due to a liquidity crisis that prompted intervention from regulators around the world.
Of the 11 S&P 500 sector indexes, six rose, led by energy, up 3.07%, followed by a 2.48% gain in communication services.
The S&P 500 growth index, which includes interest rate-sensitive technology stocks, rose 1.6%, beating the value index’s gain of 0.3%.
For the week, the S&P 500 rose 5.9%, the Dow added 4.15% and the Nasdaq jumped 8.1%. It was the S&P 500′s biggest weekly gain since June and the Nasdaq’s largest weekly gain since March.
Worries about an economic downturn have hammered Wall Street this year. The S&P 500 remains down about 16% year to date, on course for its biggest annual decline since 2008. The TSX is down a more modest 5.8% this year.
Reuters, Globe staff
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