U.S. stocks have recovered some of their steep losses from Thursday's historic sell-off. The stock market saw a massive rally in the final hour of trading as President Donald Trump officially declared a national state of emergency over the COVID-19 outbreak. Investors traded more hopefully under the possibility that the U.S. government will offer fiscal stimulus to companies hurt be the outbreak. However, markets are expected to remain volatile as stimulus has not been guaranteed.
Here's how the market closed out the week:
S&P 500 Index (NYSE: SPY): +9.28% or +230.31 points to 2,710.95
Dow Jones Industrial Average (NYSE: DIA): +9.36% or +1,985 points to 23,185.62
Nasdaq Composite Index (NASDAQ: QQQ): +9.34% or +672.43 points to 7,874.23
In Major Stock News, travel stocks--American Airlines (NASDAQ: AAL), Norwegian Cruise Line (NYSE: NCLH), Delta (NYSE: DAL), Royal Caribbean (NYSE: RCL) and United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL)--all closed higher due to President Trump hinting at potential stimulus to travel companies that have been brutally hit by the outbreak. Similarly, big banks and payments companies--JPMorgan (NYSE: JPM), Citigroup (NYSE: C), Bank of America (NYSE: BAC), American Express (NYSE: AXP) and Discover Financial (NYSE: DFS)--posted large gains as U.S. Treasury rates rose. Alibaba (NYSE: BABA) co-founder Jack Ma announced a plan to donate 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States. Disney (NYSE: DIS) announced it will suspend some live-action film productions to help stop the spread of the virus.
In Stock Sector News, sectors saw a much needed performance boost to close out this historic week. The performance gains were as follows: Financials +13.23%, Information Technology +11.96%, Communication Services +9.20%, Energy +8.84%, Real Estate +8.63%, Consumer Staples +8.41%, Industrials +7.83%, Health Care +6.95%, Materials +6.92%, Consumer Discretionary +6.08% and Utilities +5.55%.
Lastly, in Commodity and Currency News, crude oil prices increased Friday during the late market rally as Trump state the U.S. will buy more oil to fill up the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. Both the West Texas Intermediate (NYSE: USO) and Brent Crude (NYSE: BNO) gained over 6%, bring barrel prices between $32-$35 each. Gold (NYSE: GLD) prices decreased Friday, with the metal's ounce price dropping -2.89% to cost about $1,529. Finally, the U.S. Dollar (NYSE: UUP) continued its gaining streak, with the DXY Index increasing +1.22%.