Stocks end higher, bouncing back from drop the day before

NEW YORK — The stock market bounced back on Friday as investors picked up companies that had dropped earlier in the week. Major indexes recovered nearly all their losses from a fall the day before.

“It’s an odd day in the markets,” said Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at BMO Private Bank. The news out Friday was mostly disappointing, he said. Big corporations’ earnings reports weren’t all that good.

Expedia was an exception. The online travel company turned in sales that topped Wall Street’s estimates, driving its stock up $7.46, or 8 percent, to $101.69.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index climbed 22.78 points, or 1.1 percent, to finish at 2,108.29. That’s after dropping 1 percent the day before.

The Dow Jones industrial average gained 183.54 points, or 1 percent, to 18,024.06, while the Nasdaq composite rose 63.97 points, 1.3 percent, to 5,005.39.

Charlie Smith, chief investment officer at Fort Pitt Capital Group, cautioned against reading too much into a day with light trading. “The rally is fun,” he said, “but it doesn’t mean much.”

Government bond prices sank, pushing the yield on the 10-year Treasury note up to 2.12 percent from 2.03 percent the day before.

In commodities trading, gold dropped $7.90 to end at $1,174.50 an ounce, while silver lost 2 cents to $16.14 an ounce. Copper added 4 cents to $2.93 a pound.

Oil fell nearly 1 percent Friday to $59.15 a barrel. Brent crude slipped 32 cents, or 0.5 percent, to $66.46 a barrel.

In other trading, wholesale gasoline was barely changed at $2.045 a gallon, heating oil crept up 0.2 cent to $1.982 and natural gas rose 2.5 cents to $2.776 per 1,000 cubic feet.