Wall Street ends a wild and scary week almost exactly where it began. More tests loom next week

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U.S. stocks closed a wild, whipsaw week for Wall Street with modest gains

NEW YORK — After a manic week that began with Japanese stocks falling to their worst loss since 1987's Black Monday, only for U.S. stocks to soar later to their best day since 2022, slight gains on Friday carried Wall Street almost exactly back to where it began the week.

The S&P 500 rose 0.5% to shave what had been a brutal loss for the week down to a barely registerable 0.04%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 51 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite climbed 0.5%.

The gains pulled the S&P 500 back within 5.7% of its all-time high set last month, after it had sunk nearly 10% below that record during the week. It was a vicious return of volatility for a market that had been rising smoothly, and a measure of fear on Wall Street briefly surged toward its highest level since the 2020 COVID crash. It also may not be over. Worries are still high about the strength of the U.S. economy, and reports are due next week on inflation, sales at retailers and other measures of strength.

But on Friday, at least, the mood was one of calm after more big U.S. companies joined the pile reporting better profit for the spring than analysts expected.

Expedia Group jumped 10.2% after delivering stronger results than forecast, though it saw a softening of demand in July like some other companies. Take-Two Interactive rose 4.4% after the company behind the Grand Theft Auto and NBA 2K video games likewise reported better results than expected.

Earlier in the day, indexes rose for many other stock markets worldwide. They've also been frenetic since last week because of a number of factors slamming together at once. At the forefront is the value of the Japanese