Canada’s main stock index rose on Friday, a day after suffering its worst session in nearly 11 weeks. The gains closely resembled activity on Wall Street, where the S&P 500 rose 1.3%, as bargain hunters stepped back into the market. Despite Friday’s rally, all three major U.S. indexes suffered their biggest weekly percentage declines since the week ended March 20.
The day’s trading was marked by wild swings, with the S&P 500 up about 3% at its high of the session and down about 0.6% at the low.
The Federal Reserve’s indication earlier this week of a long road to recovery and rising COVID-19 cases in the United States had cast a pall over investor optimism about a swift economic rebound. The S&P 500 ended down about 6% on Thursday and the TSX just over 4%.
“We’ve seen a pretty big down move, and you’ve seen some retrenchment of that move,” said Rob Haworth, senior investment strategist at U.S. Bank Wealth Management.
Earlier this week, the tech-heavy Nasdaq confirmed it had been in a bull market since March 23 and the S&P 500 briefly tuned positive on the year.
On Friday, the S&P 500 closed above its 200-day moving average, a closely watched technical level that was last at about 3,013, after moving above and below the level.
Unofficially, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 475.69 points, or 1.89%, to 25,603.86, the S&P 500 gained 39.21 points, or 1.31%, to 3,041.31 and the Nasdaq Composite added 96.08 points, or 1.01%, to 9,588.81.
The S&P/TSX Composite Index rose 205.65 points, or 1.37%, at 15,256.57. Most sectors posted gains in the 1% to 2% range, although materials fell 0.25% as U.S. gold futures settled down 0.1% at $1,737.30 an ounce.
Read more: Stocks that saw action Friday - and why
Reuters, Globe staff
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