A Friday bounce can't rescue the week: Nasdaq 100 up 1.35% but down 5.65% since Monday

Wall Street ended a punishing week with a split personality. On Friday, the Nasdaq 100 climbed 1.35% to 26,989.99 and the S&P 500 added 0.31% to 7,376.86, while the Dow Jones slipped 0.46% to 51,285.73.

Zoom out to the full week and the picture is far less forgiving. The Nasdaq 100 lost 5.65%, the S&P 500 3.33% and the Dow 2.10%.

The bounce followed a sharp sell-off in technology shares. CNBC reported that the Nasdaq had dropped into correction territory, and the BBC examined why the US midterms sparked an AI stock selloff. By Friday, Investing.com noted that the Nasdaq was rebounding but remained on track for a fourth straight weekly decline.

A narrow rebound

Friday's gains were concentrated. Among 472 large-cap US stocks, 278 fell and only 194 rose — a sign that the index-level recovery rested on a limited group of stocks rather than broad buying.

Communications led the sector table with a cap-weighted gain of 6.66%, followed by consumer durables (+3.33%) and producer manufacturing (+2.32%). At the other end, transportation lost 1.51%, process industries 1.25% and consumer non-durables 1.23%.

Individual moves were violent in both directions. Rocket Lab jumped 15.39% and Ubiquiti 15.29%, with Coherent (+13.58%) and Airbnb (+11.67%) close behind. Axon Enterprise fell 18.18%, Atlassian 16.15% and Natera 14.59%.

The week's real story: dispersion

The five-day leaderboard is even more dramatic. AppLovin gained 61.61% over the week and Unity Software 36.36%, while Lumentum lost 37.47%, Marvell Technology 31.38% and Sandisk 31.28%.

Swings of that size among large, established companies — in a week when the VIX volatility index rose 39.12% — show how quickly sentiment has turned. Even after falling 9.01% on Friday, the VIX closed at 25.64. CNBC asked whether Wall Street's fear gauge may be flashing a buy sign.

Strong jobs, a firmer dollar

The macro backdrop added another layer. October payrolls came in at 165K, far above the 65K forecast, and the unemployment rate dipped to 4.1%. The US dollar index rose 0.71% to 102.290 and the 10-year Treasury yield finished at 4.861%. Investing.com reported that the Fed's Daly says further rate hikes are likely needed to curb inflation.

For the year as a whole, the damage remains contained: the S&P 500 is still up 7.25%, the Dow 6.61% and the Nasdaq 100 5.74%.

What to watch

• Tuesday, 13:30 UTC: US October CPI, forecast at 3.9% year on year (previous 3.7%); core CPI forecast at 2.8% (previous 2.6%).
• Thursday, 15:00 UTC: US existing home sales for October.
• Friday, 13:30 UTC: US producer prices, forecast up 0.4% month on month after 1.3%.

Analysis by Elena Marchetti, written with AI assistance from live market data (source: TradingView) and attributed third-party headlines. For information only — not investment advice.