Stocks close higher Friday, Nasdaq notches third straight week of wins

Stocks rallied on Friday to finish the week strong after briefly losing the momentum of the January rally.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 330.93 points, or 1%, to close at 33,375.49, while the S&P 500 advanced 1.89% to 3,972.61. Both indexes snapped a three-day losing streak. Meanwhile, the Nasdaq Composite rose 2.66%, with help from Netflix and Alphabet, to end the day at 11,140.43.

The Nasdaq was also the outperformer for the week, posting a 0.55% gain and its third positive week in a row. The Dow finished the week lower by 2.70%, and the S&P posted a 0.66% loss, both breaking two-week win streaks.

All of the major averages are still in positive territory for the year.

“We’re having a more emotional reaction that expected,” said Jeff Kilburg, founder and CEO of KKM Financial. “A lot of people got so pessimistic and we saw parabolic moves to kick off the year. Now, as expected, the markets aren’t going in a straight line.”

“We are finding a way to continue to move and have higher lows,” he added. “The higher lows put a little bit of confidence in the bulls. However, the technicals are still favoring the bears and selling rallies.”

Investors continued to monitor earnings reports and mega cap tech shares led the market higher. Netflix gained about 8.5% after posting more subscribers than expected even though its quarterly earnings missed analysts’ estimates. Alphabet rose more than 5% after the company announced it will lay off 12,000 employees.

“You’re seeing more weight go into some of the beat-up technology and because people are becoming a little bit more thoughtful of opportunity in the absolute tech wreck we saw in 2022,” Kilburg said.

Lea la cobertura del mercado de hoy en español aquí.