NEW YORK — U.S. stocks finished sharply higher Friday, with Wall Street tallying its first winning week in five, after Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke signaled the economy is not in need of quick stimulus.
“He didn’t say anything negative; he just didn’t have anything too great to cause anyone to ramp up growth forecasts,” said Ken Tower, senior analyst at Quantitative Analysis Service.
In his speech in Jackson Hole, Wyo., Bernanke said the Federal Open Market Committee would consider its options at its next meeting in late September.
After falling more than 200 points, the Dow Jones industrial average climbed as much as 176 points, and finished with a gain of 134.72 points, or 1.2 percent, at 11,284.54. The index was up 4.3 percent for the week.
Settling with a weekly rise of 4.7 percent, the Standard & Poor’s 500 Index rose 17.53 points, or 1.5 percent, to 1,176.80, with technology companies rising the most among its 10 industry groups.
The Nasdaq Composite Index gained 60.22 points, or 2.5 percent, to 2,479.85, up 5.9 percent from the week-ago close.
For every stock that fell, four gained on the New York Stock Exchange, where 1.1 million shares traded; composite volume neared a relatively light 4.3 billion, a possible indication that a good number of traders had departed the New York area before Hurricane Irene’s arrival.
“There seemed to be a high amount of anxiety that he’d say something that was going to scare the markets, but right about when he started speaking, whatever the market was worried about seemed to go away,” said Randy Frederick, director of trading and derivatives at the Charles Schwab Center for Financial Research, pointing to the Chicago Board Options Exchange Volatility Index, or VIX.
The index shot up just ahead of Bernanke’s address, “then fell off a cliff right after he got done,” Frederick said.
The VIX ended rose as high as 43.84 during the session and ended down 4.14 points, or 10 percent, at 35.62.
