Investing.com - Stocks rallied Friday, finishing near their highs for the day, as trade tensions appeared to ease and reports suggested Germany might consider ideas to stimulate its faltering economy.
But a tumultuous week that saw the Dow Jones industrials lose 800 points on Wednesday, ended with the major U.S. averages showing modest losses.
The Dow ended Friday up 307 points, or 1.2%. The S&P 500 rose 1.4%. The Nasdaq Composite index climbed nearly 1.7%.
The Dow's gain was its second of more than 300 points during the week. Four of the Dow's five session ended with daily gains or losses of more than 300 points, including that big 800-point loss. Thursday ended with the Dow up 99.97 points.
The Dow ended the week down 1.53%. The S&P 500 was off 1.03 for the week, with the Nasdaq down 0.8%. But the declines were the third-straight for each index and their fourth losses in five weeks.
The major averages have fallen back after hitting new highs in July, mostly because of the Trump Administration's threats to impose new tariffs on imports from China starting Sept. 1. Despite Friday's gains, the Dow was off 5.5% from its July peak, with the S&P 500 down 4.6% and the Nasdaq down 5.3%.
The trade tensions eased a bit after President Donald Trump agreed to delay tariffs on many products, especially electronics and other consumer goods ahead of the holiday shopping season. They seemed to ease more on Friday if only because there were few ugly tweets or other pronouncements.
It's not clear if the two sides are embarked on trying to resolve their differences with less incendiary rhetoric, however. So volatility is likely to continue.
German stocks rose with the DAX up 1.3% on news reports that the Angela Merkel government is looking for ways to run larger budget deficits than normally allowed when German manufacturing is falling back.
Industrials, technology and financial stocks were the strongest market sectors.
Apple (NASDAQ:AAPL), Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA), Microsoft (NASDAQ:MSFT) and 3M (NYSE:MMM) were among the market leaders on the day.
Interest rates moved higher as investors seemed willing to buy stocks after so much volatility. The 10-Year Treasury yield rose to 1.559% after hitting a low of 1.475% on Thursday. The 2-year Treasury yield fell to 1.489%.
Oil prices climbed, but gold fell back.