An early market rally lost steam towards the end of Friday's session, as a wave of positive economic news and upbeat corporate announcement tried to outweigh the market's "doom and gloom" attitude towards rising coronavirus cases in the U.S. and Europe and dashed U.S. fiscal stimulus hopes. The S&P 500 and the Dow did however recover some of their losses made over the last few sessions, but the Nasdaq slumped further. Despite the week's lows, all three major benchmarks ended with gains. The Nasdaq lead, climbing 0.79%, the S&P was next, increasing 0.19%, and the Dow edged forward, bumping up 0.07%.

In a sign of recovery, U.S. retail sales jumped 1.9% in September from August, greatly exceeding estimates for a 0.8% gain. Consumer spending at clothing stores increased 11% during the month, with sales at department stores, auto dealerships and sporting goods outlets also contributing to retail sale's fifth straight month of gains from April's lows.

Meanwhile, the University of Michigan's preliminary consumer sentiment index reading for October showed a small, but steady increase from September. The headline index rose to 81.2 for the first half of October after climbing to 80.4 in September. However, the index is still leveling way below pre-pandemic levels.

"Slowing employment growth, the resurgence in COVID-19 infections, and the absence of additional federal relief payments prompted consumers to become more concerned about the current economic conditions," noted Richard Curtin, Surveys of Consumers chief economist, in a statement. "Those concerns were largely offset by continue small gains in economic prospects for the year ahead."

Here's how the market closed for the week:

S&P 500 Index (SPY  ): +0.02% or +0.57 points to 3,483.91

Dow Jones Industrial Average (DIA  ): +0.4% or +112.57 points to 28,606.77

Nasdaq Composite Index (QQQ  ): -0.36% or -42.31 points to 11,671.56

For Major Stock News, Boeing (BA  ) lifted the Dow throughout Friday's session as Europe's aviation regulations agency EASA stated that the 737 Max will be safe to fly again in the region by the end of 2020, according to Bloomberg News. Pfizer (PFE  ) shares rose after the drugmaker stated that it expects to reach a key milestone for its COVID vaccine candidate's clinical trials in the third week of November. Once that milestone is reached, the company plans to apply for an emergency use authorization from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. Nikola (NKLA  ) shares fell after the electric carmaker's chief executive stated that the company is prepared for a future outside of its potential partnership with General Motors (GM  ).

For Sector Performance, industries mostly finished Friday's session in positive territory, with only Energy -2.31%, Consumer Discretionary -0.98%, Real Estate -0.41% and Information Technology falling lower. The positive performance gains were as follows: Utilities +1.08%, Health Care +1.02%, Industrials +0.71%, Materials +0.64%, Financials +0.08%, Consumer Staples +0.08% and Communication Services +0.01%.

For Commodities and Currency, the U.S. Dollar (UUP  ) slightly declined as increased caution over a second wave of the coronavirus as well as fading hopes for near-term stimulus made the greenback too risky. However, losses were mostly pared from strong U.S. retail sales and consumer confidence data. The dollar index edged 0.1% lower on Friday. Gold (GLD  ) prices also fell as stimulus outlook turned negative. Spot gold fell 0.35 to $1,901.87 per ounce, while gold futures settled 0.1% lower to $1,906.40 per ounce. Crude oil prices also slipped lower as demand fears crept back into future outlook and OPEC+ predicted that a second wave of the pandemic could lead to an oil surplus in 2021. International benchmark Brent Crude (BNO  ) edged lower to $42.93 per barrel, while West Texas Intermediate (USO  ) dropped to $40.88 each.

For the week ahead, stimulus and coronavirus uncertainty may lead to more market volatility, diverting attention away from quarterly earnings from big names like Procter & Gamble (PG  ), American Airlines (AAL  ), Netflix (NFLX  ), Tesla (TSLA  ) and IBM (IBM  ).