NEW YORK – The wildest week on Wall Street since the financial crisis in 2008 ended with a second day of gains.

The Dow Jones industrial average ended Friday with a gain of 125 points. Most other times it would have been a fairly big day. By this week’s standards, it was a sleeper. Friday capped a week when the blue-chip index had four 400-point swings in a row for the first time in its 115-year history.

Trading was frantic across the markets all week. The yield on the 10-year Treasury note hit a record low. Gold briefly topped $1,800 per ounce.

“It was a sharp and violent week in the stock market, but it’s my sense that the worst is over,” said Michael Kaufler, a portfolio manager at Federated Investors.

Investors reacted to every scrap of news and whispered rumor. A credit downgrade for the United States. Concerns about European bank solvency. Word that the Federal Reserve would keep interest rates low for two more years because of slowing growth. A positive retail sales report. Strong earnings from a technology bellwether. Better unemployment news.

The Dow dropped 634 points Monday, its sixth-worst point drop, as investors responded to Standard & Poor’s withdrawal of the country’s AAA credit rating. The Dow rose 429 points Tuesday, only to plunge 519 points Wednesday. It surged 423 points Thursday following a better-than-expected drop in applications for unemployment benefits.

A rebound in retail sales in July pushed the stock market higher Friday as traders looked past a Reuters/University of Michigan survey that found that consumers were pessimistic about their own finances and the economy. The measure of consumer sentiment fell to a 30-year low.

It was the first time since early July that the Dow and S&P index rose for two consecutive days. The S&P was up 6.17 points, or 0.5 percent, to 1,178.81.

Normally, such a bad consumer survey would have pushed shares sharply lower for the day, said Quincy Krosby, an investment strategist with Prudential Financial.

“But these are not normal times,” she said.