U.S. stocks jumped on Friday as Wall Street reassessed concerns about the impact of AI disruption and the risk of heavy Big Tech spending, set to rebound from a week-long tech bruising.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (^DJI) led the way higher by more than 1.5%, or more than 700 points. The S&P 500 (^GSPC) rose 1%, while the Nasdaq Composite (^IXIC) added about 0.9%, as the indices began to retrace sharp closing losses.
Wall Street looks to end the week with a bounce back as big tech CEOs and analysts shrug off concerns about the impact of new AI tools on legacy tech. But the S&P 500 and Nasdaq are still set for weekly losses, slipping into negative territory for 2026.
Bitcoin (BTC-USD) surged beyond a temporary risk-on tone stock after hitting a 16-month low overnight at $68,000. But the biggest cryptocurrency is still on track for its worst weekly performance since 2022 after wiping out all gains since Trump’s election this week.
Strategy ( MSTR ), one of the companies most affected by the crypto decline, revealed a loss for the quarter. The results initially weighed on its stock, but shares were up 13% on Friday after bitcoin rebounded and Strategy’s CEO downplayed concerns about debt-servicing risks.
Some technical disappointment persisted as shares of Amazon ( AMZN ) fell 9%. In its earnings call, the major cloud provider outlined plans for a big 2026 jump in spending of at least $200 billion, although forecasts for its operating income fell short.
Elsewhere, Stellantis ( STLA ) warned it would take more than 22 billion euros ($26 billion) in fees as it plans to scale back its EV push. This week’s $60 billion wipeout for Chinese carmaker BYD ( BYDDF, 1211.HK ) added to the picture of EV malaise painted on Wall Street and the Jeep maker’s shares tanked more than 20% on Milan ( STLAM.MI ).
Among commodities, silver (SI=F) whipped up but broadly resumed its decline as Chinese selling continued ahead of national holidays.
Looking ahead, the release of the closely watched January jobs report, originally scheduled for Friday, has been pushed to Wednesday next week. There have been fresh signs of trouble in the labor market in recent days, as job openings plunged to their lowest level since 2020 and layoff announcements increased.
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