US stocks soar to their best day since May as the Dow tops 50,000 and
bitcoin stops plunging
[February 07, 2026] By
STAN CHOE
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market roared back on Friday, as
technology stocks recovered much of their losses from earlier in the
week and bitcoin halted its plunge, at least for now.
The S&P 500 rallied 2% for its best day since May. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average soared 1,206 points, or 2.5%, and topped the 50,000
level for the first time, while the Nasdaq composite leaped 2.2%.
Chip companies helped drive the widespread rally, and Nvidia jumped 7.8%
to trim its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10%.
Broadcom climbed 7.1% and erased its drop for the week.
They were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, and they
benefited from hopes for continued spending by customers diving into
artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon CEO Andy Jassy, for example,
said late Thursday it expects to spend about $200 billion on investments
this year to take advantage of “seminal opportunities like AI, chips,
robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.”
Such immense spending, similar to what Alphabet announced a day earlier,
is creating concerns of its own, though. The question is whether all
those dollars will create big enough profits to make the investments
worth it. With doubt remaining about that, Amazon’s stock dropped 5.6%.
Even with Friday’s surge, the S&P 500 still fell to its third losing
week in the last four. Besides worries about spending by Big Tech
companies, which are Wall Street’s most influential stocks, concerns
about AI potentially stealing customers from software companies also
hurt the market. Software stocks got hit particularly hard after AI firm
Anthropic released free tools to automate things like legal services.
Bitcoin, meanwhile, steadied following a weekslong plunge that had sent
it more than halfway below its record price set in October. It climbed
back above $70,000 after briefly dropping close to $60,000 late
Thursday.
Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild
swings. Gold rose 1.8% to settle at $4,979.80 per ounce, while silver
added 0.2%.
Their prices suddenly ran out of momentum last week following
jaw-dropping rallies, which were driven by investors clamoring for
something safe to own amid worries about political turmoil, a U.S. stock
market that critics called expensive and huge debt loads for governments
worldwide. By January, prices for gold and silver were surging so
quickly that critics called it unsustainable.
On Wall Street, the recovery for bitcoin helped stocks of companies
enmeshed in the crypto economy. Robinhood Markets jumped 14% for the
biggest gain in the S&P 500. Crypto trading platform Coinbase Global
rose 13%. Strategy, the company that’s made a business of buying and
holding bitcoin, soared 26.1%.
Stocks of smaller U.S. companies also helped lead the market, along with
companies whose profits depend on U.S. households spending more money.
They benefited from potentially encouraging data on how U.S. consumers
are feeling.
[to top of second column] |
Trader Joel Lucchese, right, and colleagues wear "DOW 50,000" caps
on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as the Dow Jones
industrial average intra-day number topped the 50,000 level for the
first time, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)
A preliminary report from the University of Michigan suggested sentiment
among U.S. consumers is improving slightly, when economists were
expecting to see a drop. The improvement was strongest among households
that own stocks, which are benefiting from the S&P 500 setting a record
late last month.
To be sure, sentiment “remained at dismal levels for consumers without
stock holdings,” according to Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.
Airline stocks strengthened with hopes that more confidence among U.S.
households will translate into more spending on trips. That included
gains of 9.3% for United Airlines, 8% for Delta Air Lines and 7.6% for
American Airlines.
The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index jumped 3.6%, well above the
S&P 500’s gain. Smaller companies’ profits can be more dependent on the
strength of the U.S. economy than those for big, multinational rivals.
All told, the S&P 500 jumped 133.90 points to 6,932.30. The Dow Jones
Industrial Average rallied 1,206.95 to 50,115.67, and the Nasdaq
composite climbed 490.63 to 23,031.21.
In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe.
That was even though Stellantis, the auto giant whose stock trades in
Italy, lost a quarter of its value after saying it would take a charge
of 22 billion euros, or $26 billion, as it dials back its electric
vehicle production. The automaker acknowledged “over-estimating the pace
of the energy transition” and said it was resetting its business “to
align the company with the real-world preferences of its customers.”
Stocks fell across much of Asia, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.8%. It
benefited from a 2% climb for Toyota Motor, which said CEO Koji Sato
will step down in April and will be replaced by Chief Financial Officer
Kenta Kon.
In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on
the 10-year Treasury edged down to 4.20% from 4.21% late Thursday.
___
AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.
All contents © copyright 2026 Associated Press. All rights reserved
 |
