U.S. stocks ended the day with little changed Friday, letting investors breathe a little easier after a week where both the highs and lows were extreme.
The market gave investors a hard jolt the first two days of trading this week on concerns about the health of China’s economy.
The rebound Wednesday and Thursday was just as sharp as investors decided to scoop up beaten-up stocks.
The relatively stable Friday trading offered the owners of bruised portfolios some hope that the market was settling down.
“People are taking a little bit of a pause,” said Paul Springmeyer, senior portfolio manager at the Private Client Reserve at U.S. Bank. “We’re finally winding down here where maybe we’re seeing more rational behavior.”
The Dow Jones industrial average fell 11.76 points, or 0.1 percent, to 16,643.01 on Friday. The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 1.21 points, or 0.1 percent, to 1,988.87. The Nasdaq Composite gained 15.62 points, or 0.3 percent, to 4,828.33.
Bond prices were little changed from Thursday, keeping the yield on the 10-year benchmark Treasury note at 2.18 percent.
The S&P 500 wound up the week 1.1 percent higher than the previous Friday, but stocks are still on course for their worst monthly performance in more than three years.
The S&P 500 is down 5.5 percent in August, and the Dow is down 5.9 percent.
The stock market got a boost on Friday as the price of oil continued to rebound.
Oil gained 6.2 percent on reports of escalating tensions in Yemen. Low oil prices had raised worries about their impact on the energy sector and the health of the global economy.
U.S. crude jumped $2.66 to close at $45.22 a barrel in New York. That was the biggest one-day gain since March, 2009.
