By Katy Barnato, Ryan Dezember and Chelsey Dulaney
Stocks came roaring back on Friday, but the gains won't prevent major U.S. indexes from ending the week lower.
The Dow industrials reversed from earlier losses, rising more than 600 points in afternoon trading. But the index remained on course for its third-straight weekly pullback.
The intraday turnaround was broad. All 11 industry segments of the S&P 500 were up, and if they end that way it will be the first time since the big election-day rally. The turn came despite a bevy of headwinds that knocked down international stocks and had Friday looking like another bleak day for U.S. shares.
There is the possible government shutdown. Rising yields in the aftermath of the Federal Reserve's Wednesday meeting. Tariff threats by Donald Trump against Europe. And disappointing trial results for Novo Nordisk, which sent the Ozempic-maker's shares into a tailspin.
In recent trading:
--Major U.S. indexes rose sharply after opening lower. The Dow industrials, Nasdaq and S&P 500 were each up more than 1%.
--Global tech stocks came under pressure, including European chip stocks like ASML and Infineon, and Taiwan's TSMC. U.S. firms such as Microsoft and Tesla opened lower but turned to gains.
--Europe's Stoxx 600 ended 0.9% lower, hit with Novo Nordisk's selloff, and Trump's threat of tariffs unless the European Union buys large amounts of U.S. oil and gas.
--Benchmark Treasury yields declined, after climbing for two days to settle at 4.569% Thursday.
--Natural-gas futures prices rose to new 2024 highs. The onset of wintery weather in the East is lifting demand for the heating and power-generation fuel, which is now up about 50% from a year ago.
--Bitcoin prices bounced back to about $97,000, lifting stocks such as Coinbase, MicroStrategy and Robinhood. Earlier this week, the cryptocurrency reached a record high above $108,000.
This item is part of a Wall Street Journal live coverage event. The full stream can be found by searching P/WSJL (WSJ Live Coverage).
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
December 20, 2024 14:23 ET (19:23 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2024 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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