Wall Street ended one of its most dizzying, volatile weeks in history on a relatively quiet note Friday, with the Dow climbing 126 points to post its second gain in a row.
"It's the craziest week I've ever seen. Ever." said Ted Weisberg of Seaport Securities who has been trading at the New York Stock Exchange for 43 years.
In all, the Dow ended the week down 1.5%, a relatively modest percentage since the blue chips had been down as much as 7% earlier in the week. Stocks are still on pace for one of their worst months in since the financial crisis however.
At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) added 126 points, or 1.1%, to end the week at 11,269. The S&P 500 (SPX) added 6 points, or 0.5%, to 1,179 and the Nasdaq composite (COMP) increased 15 points, or 0.6%, to 2,508.
It appears, at least for the moment, the fear among investors that Europe is heading toward a financial catastrophe and the U.S. is slipping into another recession has abated. The Dow is up more than 600 points from the low it hit on Tuesday.
"It's hard to say, given how volatile the last couple of weeks have been, but it looks like we could have found a bottom earlier this week," said Matt King, chief investment officer at Bell Investment Advisors.
King said wary investors are trying to take advantage of the low valuations and are tiptoeing back into the market.
"We don't think this will turn into a bear market," King said. "Looking back through history, we can't find a single instance of a bear market that has happened in the face of rising earnings and an accommodative monetary policy."
"Stocks have just gotten so oversold and cheap, and I think that's why we saw a big push higher Thursday and more of it today," he said.
The dollar was slightly higher against the euro, and but fell versus the Japanese yen and the British pound.
Oil for September delivery rose 34 cents to $86.38 a barrel.
Gold futures for December delivery slipped $8.20 to $1,742.60 an ounce. Earlier this week, gold prices soared to record highs above $1,800 an ounce.
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