The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 26,816.59 on Friday with a gain of 319.92 points or 1.21%. The S&P 500 closed at 2,970.27 for a gain of 32.14 points or 1.09%. The Nasdaq Composite closed at 8,057.04 for a gain of 106.26 points or 1.34%. The VIX Volatility Index was lower at 15.53 for a loss of 2.04 points or -11.61%
For the week, the S&P 500 gained 0.6% and the Dow Jones and Nasdaq were both up approximately 0.9%. For the year, the Nasdaq is up 21.4%, the S&P 500 is up 18.5% and the Dow Jones is up 15%.
Friday’s market movers
U.S. indexes ended the week with positive gains on Friday. News on a phase one deal after President Trump and China’s Vice Premier Liu He met on Friday helped increase investors’ confidence. The U.S. Treasury secretary also said the increase in tariffs planned for Oct.15 had been canceled.
Stocks also rallied Friday on a report of $60 billion worth of Treasury bills to be purchased by the Federal Reserve through the second quarter of 2020. The Fed’s Treasury purchases will increase balance sheet assets and help to mitigate short-term market issues arising over the past several months.
Next week, investors will be watching the beginning of the third-quarter earnings season with results from the big banks. JPMorgan (JPM, Financial), Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial), Citigroup (C, Financial) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Financial) will report earnings on Tuesday. Bank of America (BAC, Financial) will report on Wednesday and Morgan Stanley (MS, Financial) will report on Thursday.
Economic reports affecting market trading included the following:
- Export and import prices were released. Export prices decreased 0.2% in September following a decrease of 0.6%. Year over year, export prices were down 1.6%. Import prices increased 0.2% in September following a decrease of 0.2%. Year over year, import prices decreased 1.6%.
- The Michigan Consumer Sentiment Index increased to 96 in October from 93.2.
- The Baker Hughes North American oil rig count increased to 1,002 from 999.
In the S&P 500, the materials, industrial and technology sectors led gains. In the Dow Jones Industrial Average, the following stocks led gains:
- Dow Inc. (DOW, Financial) 4.92%
- Caterpillar (CAT, Financial) 4.65%
- 3M (MMM, Financial) 3.80%
- Apple (AAPL, Financial) 2.57%
- Goldman Sachs (GS, Financial) 2.41%
Small-cap stocks
In small caps, the Russell 2000 closed at 1,511.90 for a gain of 26.54 points or 1.79%. The S&P 600 closed at 935.60 for a gain of 17.24 points or 1.88%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Growth Index closed at 9,642.95 for a gain of 174.64 points or 1.84%. The Dow Jones U.S. Small-Cap Value Index closed at 9,295.27 for a gain of 169.83 points or 1.86%.
Other notable indexes
Other notable index closes included the S&P 400 Mid-Cap Index at 1,916.57 for a gain of 32.40 points or 1.72%; the S&P 100 at 1,315.77 for a gain of 13.36 points or 1.03%; the Nasdaq 100 at 7,843.88 for a gain of 103.51 points or 1.34%; the Russell 3000 at 1,738.62 for a gain of 20.25 points or 1.18%; the Russell 1000 at 1,640.93 for a gain of 18.44 points or 1.14%; the Wilshire 5000 at 30,334.11 for a gain of 348.50 points or 1.16%; and the Dow Jones U.S. Select Dividend Index at 721.01 points or 7.87 points or 1.10%.
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