February 6, 2026 / 6:23 PM EST / CBS/AP
U.S. stocks staged a sharp comeback Friday as tech names recovered losses from earlier in the week and bitcoin steadied, producing the market’s biggest one-day gain since May. The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 1,207 points, or 2.5%, to finish at 50,115.67 — topping the 50,000 mark for the first time. The S&P 500 rallied about 2% and the Nasdaq rose roughly 2.2%.
The S&P 500 jumped 134 points to close at 6,932, while the Nasdaq added 491 points to finish at 23,031.
“Stocks are wrapping up a volatile week of trade on a high note,” said Adam Turnquist, chief technical strategist for LPL Financial, noting the S&P’s bounce off its 100-day moving average and a push past resistance at 6,900. Broad-based buying drove the rally, with advancing issues outnumbering decliners by better than 3-to-1, he said.
Semiconductor and other tech stocks led the advance. Nvidia gained 7.8% and trimmed its weekly loss, while Broadcom climbed 7.1% and erased its earlier drop for the week. Investors are hopeful that continued corporate spending on artificial intelligence will support those companies after Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said the company expects to spend about $200 billion this year on AI, chips, robotics and low Earth orbit satellites. Alphabet made similar investment announcements earlier in the week.
That scale of spending, however, has raised questions about whether the outlays will generate sufficient profit. Amazon’s stock fell 5.6% as some investors remain skeptical about the near-term payoff from heavy AI investments. The S&P 500 still ended the week with its third losing week in four despite Friday’s surge. Concerns about AI eating into the market share of some software firms were underscored after AI company Anthropic released free tools to automate tasks such as legal work.
Cryptocurrencies also helped lift sentiment. Bitcoin steadied after a several-week slide that had taken it more than halfway down from its October record, climbing back above $70,000 after a Thursday dip near $60,000. That rebound benefited securities tied to the crypto economy: Robinhood jumped 14% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500, Coinbase rose 13%, and a bitcoin-focused firm known for holding the asset surged about 26.1%.
Precious metals calmed after recent swings, with gold up 1.8% to settle at $4,979.80 an ounce and silver gaining 0.2%, moves driven in part by demand for safe havens amid geopolitical uncertainty.
Smaller-cap stocks and retailers also outperformed, helped by a preliminary University of Michigan survey showing a modest improvement in U.S. consumer sentiment — strongest among households that own stocks. “Market sentiment improved after today’s positive report out of the University of Michigan,” said Jeffrey Roach, chief economist for LPL Financial, noting one-year inflation expectations fell to their lowest since January 2025. Surveys director Joanne Hsu cautioned that sentiment remained weak for consumers without stock holdings.
Airline shares rose on hopes that firmer consumer confidence will boost travel spending: United climbed 9.3%, Delta gained 8%, and American rose 7.6%.