Market Overview

U.S. stocks surged in early trading on Friday, with $Dow Jones Industrial Average (.DJI.US)$ and $S&P 500 Index (.SPX.US)$ hitting intraday highs and all three major indexes gaining over 1% by midday. However, gains were halved by the close. Small-cap stocks led the market for the second day, with the small-cap index rising 1.8% before ending up 1%, and gaining 5.7% for the week, outperforming major indexes.

The semiconductor index rose over 2% for the week, and the Chinese concept stocks index gained over 4% for the week. $Tesla (TSLA.US)$ rose about 3% on Friday but ended a four-week winning streak, $NVIDIA (NVDA.US)$ gained 1.4% on Friday and 2.7% for the week, $Baidu (BIDU.US)$ fell 1.6% on Friday but rose over 11% for the week, and bank stocks were sluggish as the U.S. earnings season kicked off.

The dollar fell for two consecutive weeks. The yen rose 1% at one point, breaking above 158. Gold rose for the third consecutive week. Oil prices fell on Friday, ending a four-week winning streak.