U.S. stocks bounce back, end 2-day slide; Dow rises 0.86%

Investing.com - U.S. stocks rebounded from a two-day slide Friday, boosted by some constructive German economic data and bargain hunting by U.S. traders.

In U.S. trading Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.86% while the S&P 500 added 0.88%. The Nasdaq Composite jumped 0.97%. Friday’s gains were not enough to wipe out the 1.9% lost by the S&P 500 over the prior two sessions and the benchmark U.S. index slipped to its first weekly decline of the year.

Stocks sold-off on Wednesday and Thursday amid concerns the Federal Reserve is close to winding down or halting its USD85 billion-a-month bond-buying program. Also known as quantitative easing, money printing has been viewed as a primary catalyst in lifting riskier assets since the global financial crisis.

The concern now is that the Fed will bring an end to the program before the U.S. economic recovery truly takes hold. For most of this year, U.S. data points have been solid, though a couple of reports out on Thursday gave traders pause.

Initial claims for jobless benefits jumped by 20,000 to 362,000 last week, according to the Labor Department. The less volatile four-week moving average rose by 8,000 to 360,750.

The Labor Department said its consumer price index was unchanged in January after a flat reading in the prior month. Economists expected a modest January increase of 0.1%. The core index, which excludes food and energy prices, rose 0.3% last month, topping the 0.2% increase economists expected.

On Friday, Germany helped the cause when the Ifo institute’s business climate index, jumped to 107.4 in February from a revised 104.3 in January. That is good for the best reading since April and topped the consensus estimate that called for an increase to 104.9.

The Dow was boosted by shares of technology giant Hewlett-Packard. Embattled HP forecast a fiscal second-quarter profit of 80-82 cents per share, topping the 77 cents analysts are expecting. HP reported a fiscal first-quarter profit of USD3 billion, or 63 cents a share, from USD1.47 billion, or 73 cents, a year earlier. Revenue fell 5.6% to USD28.4 billion. On an adjusted basis, the company earned 82 cents a share. Analysts expected 71 cents on revenue of USD27.8 billion.

After the close, Moody’s Investors Service lowered the United Kingdom's credit rating to Aa1 from Aaa with a stable outlook.