NEW YORK – Here’s something for investors beaten down by the market’s sharp declines this spring: The Dow Jones industrial average had its best two weeks since November.
The Dow’s gain of 16 points on Friday was modest, but it capped a surge of 5.2 percent over the past two weeks that puts the average nearly halfway back to the high for the year that it reached on April 26.
Stocks had a longer winning streak earlier this year, an eight-week stretch that ended in late April, but those gains were more gradual. Then a sharp drop in May and early June brought the Dow down as much as 12.4 percent below its 2010 high, a decline that market analysts call a “correction.”
The debate now is focusing on whether that correction phase is over. A correction is generally considered a drop of 10-20 percent from a recent peak. The Dow has risen back 6.5 percent from its lowest close of the year on June 7, but it’s still down 6.7 percent from its 2010 high.
“I don’t know that we’re totally through the correction,” said Stu Schweitzer, global markets strategist at JPMorgan’s Private Bank in New York. “I do expect markets to remain quite volatile all through the rest of this year, but I still expect that we’re going to end the year higher.”
Minerals companies led other shares higher after gold settled at another record high. Barrick Gold Corp. jumped 3.5 percent, while Newmont Mining Corp. rose 2.6 percent.
Corporate news also brought out buyers. CVS Caremark Corp. rose 1.9 percent and Walgreen Co. rose 2.8 percent after the two companies settled a dispute over pharmacy prescriptions that had threatened to hurt profits. Dow component Caterpillar Inc. gained 1.4 percent after reporting sharply higher sales.
The Dow rose 16.47, or 0.2 percent, to close at 10,450.64. The broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.47, or 0.1 percent, to 1,117.51. The Nasdaq composite index edged up 2.64, or 0.1 percent, to 2,309.80.
All three indicators posted solid gains for the week. The Dow is up 2.3 percent, the S&P 500 2.4 percent and the Nasdaq 3 percent.
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