NEW YORK — A tough week on the stock market ended quietly Friday.
Major indexes notched modest gains, not nearly enough to make up for the four previous days of losses. It wound up being the second-worst week for the market this year.
The Dow Jones industrial average remains down slightly for 2015, and the Standard & Poor’s 500 index is essentially flat.
There was no one major catalyst to move the market one way or another Friday. Biotechnology stocks, battered during the past week, were among the top gainers, and energy stocks lagged as the price of oil fell.
The Dow Jones industrial average rose 34.43 points, or 0.2 percent, to 17,712.66; the S&P 500 rose 4.87 points, or 0.2 percent, to 2,061.02; and the Nasdaq composite rose 27.86 points, or 0.6 percent, to 4,891.22.
Stocks fell most of the week because of a combination of weaker-than-expected economic data and concerns that the rapid rise of the dollar may crimp U.S. corporate earnings. Companies start releasing their first-quarter results next month.
The biggest sell-off came Wednesday, when a report showed that orders at U.S. factories for long-lasting manufactured goods fell in February, the latest disappointing data suggesting the U.S. economy has hit a soft patch. The Dow plunged nearly 300 points that day.
The question is whether the U.S. economy really is slowing down or whether the phenomenon can be blamed on nasty winter weather.
Benchmark U.S. crude fell 5 percent, or $2.56, to close at $48.87 a barrel in New York. U.S. crude finished last week at $45.72. Brent crude, a benchmark for international oils used by many U.S. refineries, fell 7 cents to close at $56.41 in London.
