Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), right, and the foreign exchange rate at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 26, 2021. Shares were higher across Asia on Friday after a strong gains on Wall Street driven by hopes for a powerful recovery from the pandemic.
Currency traders talk near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 26, 2021. Shares were higher across Asia on Friday after a strong gains on Wall Street driven by hopes for a powerful recovery from the pandemic.
Currency traders watch their computer monitors near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 26, 2021. Shares were higher across Asia on Friday after a strong gains on Wall Street driven by hopes for a powerful recovery from the pandemic.
A currency trader stands near the screens showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), center, and the foreign exchange rates at the foreign exchange dealing room in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, March 26, 2021. Shares were higher across Asia on Friday after a strong gains on Wall Street driven by hopes for a powerful recovery from the pandemic.
FILE – In this Nov. 23, 2020 file photo, the New York Stock Exchange is seen in New York. Stocks are opening higher on Wall Street at the end of an up-and-down week, led by gains in banks and energy companies. The index was up 0.5% early Friday, March 26, 2021.
In this photo provided by the New York Stock Exchange, William Lawrence, center, works with fellow traders on the floor, Friday, March 26, 2021. Stocks rose in afternoon trading on Wall Street Friday with technology companies and banks leading the way higher.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks burst to their best day in three weeks on Friday, helping Wall Street return to record heights and avoid what could have been a second straight weekly loss.
The S&P 500 added 65.02 points, or 1.7%, to 3,974.54, with a quarter of that rise coming in the last five minutes of trading alone. Some of the biggest gains came from companies whose profits would jump the most if COVID-19 vaccinations and massive U.S. government spending programs juice the economy as much as economists expect. The index locked in a 1.7% gain for the week after losing 0.8% last week.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 453.40 points, or 1.4%, to 33,072.88, and both it and the S&P 500 set all-time highs. The Nasdaq composite climbed 161.05, or 1.2%, to 13,138.72, though it remains 6.8% below its record set last month.
Stock prices have been churning in recent weeks, and momentum has often shifted sharply, sometimes by the hour. 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.
This past week, everything from President Joe Biden doubling his goal for COVID-19 vaccinations to a skyscraper-sized ship blocking one of the world’s most important canals sent markets swinging.