NEW YORK: The Dow and the S&P 500 index rose on Friday, building on a rally in the previous session after the Kremlin said Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to send a delegation to Minsk for negotiations with Ukraine.
The news calmed investor nerves after fears about the fallout from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and harsh sanctions from the West triggered a massive selloff across global markets earlier this week.
“Whether this is true or not that was the catalyst to drive us up. We continue to be in a choppy headline driven market,” said Dennis Dick, proprietary trader at Bright Trading LLC in Las Vegas.
“In 2020 we were buying the dip and selling them three days later and making money, in this environment, you might be buying the dip and selling it 5 minutes later.”
Eight of the 11 major S&P sectors advanced in early trading, with energy and financials up 1.7% and 1.3%, respectively.
Sectors such as information technology and consumer discretionary, which houses some of the megacap companies, underperformed after rallying sharply in the previous session.
At 10:12 a.m. ET, the Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 256.49 points, or 0.77%, at 33,480.32, the S&P 500 was up 20.90 points, or 0.49%, at 4,309.60, and the Nasdaq Composite was down 43.89 points, or 0.33%, at 13,429.69.
Global stocks rose, while oil prices fell below $100 a barrel and safe-haven gold came off 18-month highs.
Wall Street bounced back in a late-session rally on Thursday, led by a 3% gain in Nasdaq, after a coordinated response by the West in the form of sanctions were seen as softer than many investors had feared.
Still, the major indexes are tracking their third straight weekly declines as escalating geopolitical tensions poses a double whammy for investors already worried about aggressive policy tightening plans by the Federal Reserve.
Defense stocks Lockheed Martin Corp, Northrop Grumman Corp and L3Harris Technologies Inc inched higher for a second straight day.
Etsy Inc jumped 5.2% after the online crafts retailer beat estimates for fourth-quarter results, boosted by strong holiday demand for gifts and other products on its online marketplace.
Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 1.55-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. Declining issues outnumbered advancers for a 1.08-to-1 ratio on the Nasdaq.
The S&P index recorded 3 new 52-week highs and no new lows, while the Nasdaq recorded 14 new highs and 37 new lows.
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