US stocks rise as financial shares rally
New York: US stocks finished higher as a broad gain in financial shares bolstered the market.
On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 369.21 points, or 1.44 per cent, to 26,075.30. The S&P 500 increased 32.99 points, or 1.05 per cent, to 3,185.04. The Nasdaq Composite Index was up 69.69 points, or 0.66 per cent, to 10,617.44, Xinhua news agency reported.
Shares of JPMorgan Chase and Goldman Sachs soared 5.47 per cent and 4.44 per cent, respectively, leading the gainers in the 30-stock index.
Shares of Citigroup, American Express and Bank of America all closed noticeably higher.
The S&P 500 financials sector rallied 1.27 per cent, among the best-performing groups.
Meanwhile, US-listed Chinese companies traded mostly lower, with eight of the top 10 stocks by weight in the S&P US Listed China 50 index ending the day on a downbeat note.
The moves followed a downbeat session on Wall Street that saw the Dow down more than 300 points as data showed US jobless claims remained elevated amid the pandemic.
More than 3.15 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States, with over 133,000 deaths, as of Friday afternoon, according to the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at Johns Hopkins University.