NEW YORK — Another strong gain for stocks Friday extended the market’s recovery from a dismal start to the year to a fifth straight winning week.
The Standard and Poor’s 500 index closed up for the year for the first time. The Dow Jones industrial average turned positive Thursday. Both had been down more than 10 percent for the year a little more than a month ago.
The Dow rose 120.81 points Friday, or 0.69 percent, to 17,602.30. It is up 1 percent for the year. The S&P 500 gained 8.99 points, or 0.4 percent, to 2,049.58 and is now up 0.3 percent for 2016.
The Nasdaq composite picked up 20.66 points, or 0.4 percent, to 4,795.65, although the Nasdaq remains down 4 percent for the year.
“The market tended to focus on the negative and ignore the good” at the start of this year, said Lowell Yura, head of Multi-Asset Solutions for BMO Global Asset Management.
But over the course of the five-week rally, reports on hiring, manufacturing and construction spending showed the U.S. economy is doing fairly well. Industrial, consumer and technology stocks benefited from the more positive outlook in the U.S. Energy and materials stocks climbed as oil and precious metals prices rose.
The biggest gainers Friday were health care stocks and banks — the worst-performing parts of the market this year.
Oil prices turned lower, though they remained higher for the week.
Benchmark U.S. crude lost 76 cents, or 1.9 percent, to $39.44 a barrel in New York.
