U.S. stocks jumped on Friday, rebounding for a second day led by technology shares and reopening trades after Wall Street started the week with big losses.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 260 points. The S&P 500 gained 1.2%. The tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite, the relative underperformer for the week, snapped back by 1.9%.
Stocks advanced even after data showed consumer purchases slowed down last month. Advance retail sales were flat for April, the Commerce Department reported Friday. That compared to the Dow Jones estimate of a 0.8% gain and a 9.8% surge in March.
The major averages are still on track for modest losses for the week as inflation fears hit sentiment. The Dow and the S&P 500 are down more than 1% each for the week, while tech stocks have been hit especially hard, pulling the Nasdaq down over 3% for the week.
“This week’s decline was a good thing,” said Tony Dwyer, chief market strategist at Canaccord Genuity. “There needs to be a correction into the summer that is meaningful enough to eliminate the extreme intermediate-term overbought condition and excess optimism.”
Tech stocks were the biggest outperformers Friday. Tesla gained nearly 3%. Facebook jumped more than 2%, while Apple, Amazon, Netflix and Alphabet were all trading up at least 1%.
Disney shares were bucking the trend, falling 4.5% after posting weaker-than-expected revenue and streaming subscribers.
Stocks most exposed to the ongoing recovery jumped again Friday after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eased guidelines, saying that in most settings fully vaccinated people don’t need to wear masks indoors or outdoors.
United Airlines and American Airlines both climbed more than 4%. Carnival shares popped 6%, while Norwegian Cruise Line and Royal Caribbean advanced more than 5% each.
The market’s volatility this week comes as economic data points to inflation. The Consumer Price Index jumped 4.2% from a year earlier in April, which was the fastest rate since 2008. This has sparked fears that the Federal Reserve could be forced to dial back its accommodative monetary policy.
“Higher inflation is likely to remain in the spotlight as the post-pandemic recovery accelerates,” Mark Haefele, chief investment officer at UBS Global Wealth Management, said in a note. “But while we expect inflation fears to generate bouts of volatility, and we continue to position for reflation, we also see such market swings as an opportunity to build exposure to structural winners.”
Still, earnings season has been stronger-than-expected and some believe this bull market has more room to run and investors should take advantage of any dips.
“The corporate turnaround is strong enough to keep markets rising, even as bond yields increase in anticipation of central bank tightening,” Robert Buckland, equity strategist at Citi, said in a note. “So buy any short term dips, as we may be seeing now. There is a time to turn more cautious but that may be next year, not this.”
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