Investing.com -- U.S. stocks capped their first positive week of the year with a stellar session on Friday, as crude futures surged by more than $2 a barrel, providing some reassurance for investors that a prolonged oil rout may be nearing its conclusion.
On Friday, crude futures settled above $32 a barrel after surging by more than 8% on the session. The bounce off near 12-year lows took place amid heavy short covering from traders, as prominent energy officials from OPEC members such as Saudi Arabia and Venezuela offered strong hints that the global economy may be unable to absorb oil prices at their current level.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 210.83 or 1.33% to close at 16,093.51, while the NASDAQ Composite index surged 119.12 or 2.66% to 4,591.18, as Apple Inc (O:AAPL) provided a boost to both indices. Despite Friday's rally, the Dow remains down by more than 7% on the new year while the NASDAQ has fallen approximately 11% over the last six months. The S&P 500 Composite index, meanwhile, gained 37.91 or 2.03% to 1,906.90, as all 10 sectors closed in the green. Stocks in the Energy, Telecommunications and Technology industries led, each rising by more than 2%.
The top performer on the Dow was Apple (O:AAPL), which soared 5.12 or 5.32% to 101.42, ahead of its fourth quarter earnings release early next week. Investors are bracing for weak sales among Apple's tablets and iPhone 6 models over the last quarter. The soft revenues could be offset by hints from the world's largest company on the timing of its iPhone 7 release, which many analysts expect to hit markets in September. Shares in Apple were bolstered by a report from Bloomberg that Alphabet Inc C (O:GOOG) paid the tech giant $1 billion in disbursements in 2014 to keep its search function as a default option on ioS devices. The worst performer on the Dow was American Express Company (N:AXP), which fell 7.58 or 12.10% to 55.06, after reporting weaker than expected earnings a session earlier.
The biggest gainer on the NASDAQ was Incyte Corporation (O:INCY), which added 5.62 or 7.62% to 79.40. Incyte finished just head of SBAC, which jumped 6.53 or 7.46% to 94.02 after the South Florida-based wireless infrastructure manufacturer received an upgrade from analysts at Zack's Investment Research. The worst performer was Netflix Inc (O:NFLX), which fell 1.63 or 1.59% to 100.72, following reports that the streaming video company has begun blocking users VPN services, as it continues to expand globally into new emerging markets.
The top performer in the S&P 500 was Williams Companies Inc (N:WMB), which surged 3.70 or 23.07% to 19.74, helped by the bounce in oil prices. Shares in the Tulsa-based energy company are still down more than 62% over the last year. American Express (N:AXP) was also the worst performer on the S&P 500, just below Freeport-McMoran Copper & Gold Inc (N:FCX) which fell 0.39 or 9.01% to 3.94. Freeport-McMoran has been mired in a year-long slump prompted by the commodities rout in China.
On the New York Stock Exchange, advancing stocks outnumbered declining ones by a 2,781-329 margin. The near 9:1 ratio contrasted starkly from trading conditions on Wednesday when the Dow fell more than 550 points at session-lows to fall near six-month lows. At that point, the ratio of declining to advancing stocks hovered near 30:1, a level previously not seen since the Financial Crisis.