A renewed wave of dip buying powered the best day for stocks since May in the wake of a tech rout fueled by worries over the billions of dollars being thrown at artificial-intelligence development.
Bitcoin jumped after a 50% tumble from its peak. Silver and gold also bounced.
Following a plunge in some of Wall Street’s most-crowded trades, the S&P 500 rose 2%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average hit 50,000, while an exchange-traded fund tracking software firms added 3.5%. A gauge of chipmakers soared 5.7%, with Nvidia Corp.’s Jensen Huang telling CNBC demand for AI is “incredibly high.”
Amazon.com Inc. sank 5.6% on plans to spend $200 billion on the technology.
In an episode reminiscent of the response to DeepSeek’s AI model at the start of 2025, a new automation tool from Anthropic PBC sparked a selloff in shares across the software, financial services and asset management sectors that spread to the broader market earlier this week.
“My view: this is overdone,” said Kenny Polcari at SlateStone Wealth. “This is the moment to keep your head on straight. It is not the time to panic. For long-term investors, this is the time to go shopping. A lot is on sale.”
Emotional deleveraging selloffs such as the one that took place earlier this week can be “unnerving,” but are “normal and healthy calibration” events, reminding us of the old proverb: “Trees don’t grow to the sky,” according to Mark Hackett at Nationwide.
“At this point, the macro and earnings environment remain encouraging, suggesting this is more a positioning shift and technical pause rather than a fundamental crack,” he said.
After a few reports this week underscored the fragility of the jobs market, data Friday showed consumer sentiment unexpectedly improved to the highest in six months.
Over 400 shares in the S&P 500 gained. Both its equal-weighted version – which strips out market-value biases – and the Dow hit all-time highs. The Russell 2000 climbed 3.6%. The Nasdaq 100 rose 2.1%.
Bitcoin reclaimed almost all of the losses registered during Thursday’s crypto meltdown. It surged 11% to around $70,000.
The yield on 10-year Treasuries rose two basis points to 4.20%. The dollar fell 0.4%. Oil edged up higher despite an apparent easing in geopolitical risks. Iran said it agreed with the US to continue indirect talks to de-escalate tensions and avert a military confrontation, with Tehran describing the first day as positive.