U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, closing out the week on an upbeat note, led by strong gains in the tech sector.
The S&P 500 finished Friday up 1.9%, though it still closed the week down 0.7%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average increased 1.0% on Friday. The technology-heavy Nasdaq Composite closed up 2.9%, its biggest one-day gain since the end of November.
The moves up Friday closed out what had been a rough week for Wall Street. Stocks had investors dissected economic data and corporate earnings reports, clouding their views of the health of the U.S. economy.
Despite concerns about the economy, markets have been fairly resilient and moved mostly higher this year, according to the U.S. Market Intelligence team at JP Morgan. However, the team doesn’t believe a recession is currently priced in in equity markets.
“We do not agree with the argument that because a recession is consensus,” the team wrote, “The market and economic outcome have to be better.”
The S&P 500 is expected to report a year-over-year decline in earnings of 3.9% for the fourth. This would mark the first year-over-year decline in earnings reported by the index since 2020 if realized.
