Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia, told Reuters on Friday that the past couple of months were a pretty bleak, we're at or very close to bear market territory for just about every major index.
It's too early to tell whether we're approaching a bottom or at least stabilizing. The technology sector stole the spotlight Friday with the Nasdaq Composite going up 434.04 points or 3.82 percent to 11,805. The Standard and Poor's 500 jumped by 93.81 points or 2.39 percent to 4,023. The Dow Jones industrials, although lagging a bit, managed a 466.36 points or 1.47 percent gain to 12,196. After its multi-month rally, the U.S. dollar bounced back on foreign exchange markets. The euro gained back a bit of its recent losses to trade at 1.0398 around the New York close Friday.
The British pound was up to 1.2236. The Swiss franc was little changed at 1.0028.
The Canadian dollar increased to 1.2922. The badly wounded Australian dollar bounced back a bit to 0.6928. The New Zealand dollar was up to 0.6268.
The Dax in Germany surged 2.10 percent Friday on overseas equity markets. The Paris, France-based CAC 40 rebounded 2.52 percent. The FTSE 100 increased by 2.55 percent in London.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei 225 advanced 678.93 points or 2.64 percent to 26,427. The Australian All Ordinaries rallied 141.10 points or 1.97 percent to close Friday at 7,307. The Shanghai Composite gained 29.29 points, or 0.96 percent, to 3,084 in China. The Hang Seng in Hong Kong jumped 518.43 points or 2.68 percent to 19,898. In New Zealand, the S&P NZX 50 went against the trend, dipping 9.18 points or 0.08 percent to 11,168.