Stocks end week down, shaken by global woes
The Dow average rose 59 points on Friday, but was down 1 percent for the week.
Specialist Christopher Gildea watches images from the earthquake in Japan on a television screen at his post on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange March 11, 2011. US stocks gained on Friday but suffered an overall loss for the week.
Richard Drew/AP
By Abby Schultz, Special to CNBC.com
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Stocks ended higher for the session, although lower for the week, amid concerns over global growth and Middle East unrest, and in the wake of a devastating earthquake in Japan.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 59.79 points or 0.50 percent to close at about 12,044.40 on Friday. For the week, the blue chip index fell 1.03 percent.
Among Dow components, McDonalds was the best performer, gaining almost 1 percent for the week, while Chevron was the worst, falling more than 3.5 percent.
The S&P 500 gained 9.16 points or 0.71 percent to close at 1,304.28 on Friday. For the week, the S&P 500 fell 1.28 percent.
AT&T rose the most on the broad market index for the week, while Exxon Mobil fell the most.
The tech-heavy Nasdaq rose 14.59 points, or 0.54 percent, to close at 2,715.61 Friday. For the week, the Nasdaq fell 2.48 percent.
The CBOE Volatility Index, widely considered the best gauge of fear in the market, fell 6.6 percent this week to 20.31.
The U.S. equity markets have had a muted reaction to the Japanese quake on fairly light volume, as equity markets treaded water throughout most of the session.
Still, the market is at a "crucial spot" technically, as the S&P 500 is just sitting above its 50-day moving average of 1,300.13, Joseph Benanti, managing director at Rosenblatt Securities, told CNBC.com. "If we close lower, we’ll see a follow through in the early part of next week," he said.
That softness could continue until the Federal Open Market Committee's announcement next Tuesday, where traders will look for a sense of the Fed's current thinking on its $600 billion bond buying program known as "quantitative easing 2."
"I think people are watching and waiting to see what happens next week," Benanti said.
Over the weekend, traders will remain focused on events in the Middle East, and its implications for oil prices, as well as the news flow out of Japan.
"Everybody's watching what's happening over the weekend," another trader said. "Nobody wants to make a bet one way or the other."
