US stocks rose on Friday after a choppy trading session as traders considered Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s recent comments on inflation.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 324 points, or about 1%. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq Composite rose 1.4% and 1.9%, respectively.
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The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 193 points, or 0.61%, during the regular session on Thursday — closing higher after alternating between gains and losses throughout the day. The S&P 500 rose 0.66% and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 0.60%.
These gains put all three major averages on course for losses for three consecutive weeks. During Thursday, the Dow was up 1.45%. Meanwhile, the S&P 500 is up 2.09%, and the Nasdaq Composite is up 1.99%.
Stocks have been volatile recently as expectations for a rate hike of 0.75 percentage point this month grew on Wall Street, after the Federal Reserve chair said once again that he is “strongly committed” to lowering inflation.
“The case for an ongoing bear market is that the Fed will continue to tighten monetary policy, pull liquidity from the market, and cause equities to crash,” said David Donabedian, chief investment officer at CIBC Private Wealth US. “But this week’s market recovery showed that there is continued resilience in the economy backed by favorable economic reports.”
However, Donabedian added that he doesn’t think stocks have reached the bottom of a bear market yet.
“Indeed, the journey to the next bull market will take time, and it will be marked by a series of setbacks and recovery,” he said.
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