TIMOTHY A. CLARY / AFP via Getty Images
- US stocks got a boost on Friday as traders rushed to buy the dip in software and tech stocks.
- After days of selling, software stocks rose 3% and the broader Nasdaq rose nearly 2%.
- Bitcoin also climbed 13% after its brutal decline to near $60,000 on Thursday.
After days of heavy selling, investors look like they’re in buy-the-dip mode.
US stocks rallied hard on Friday, with traders trying to cap off a week of heavy losses in the tech sector and in software stocks on a high note.
The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF — which entered a bear market earlier this month as investors panicked over high valuations and AI’s potential threat to software companies — surged 3%. The ETF is still down around 30% from its peak late last year.
Major indexes soared. The Dow advanced more than 1,000 points. The Nasdaq Composite rose 2% as tech stocks rose across the board. The index also soared despite Amazon shares plummeting after the tech giant reported Q4 earnings on Thursday.
Here’s where major indexes stood around 1 p.m. ET on Friday:
Investors were also eager to jump back into other areas of the market that logged heavy losses this week. Bitcoin surged 13% after testing the $60,000 mark late Thursday. It’s still down 9% since Monday.
Other areas continued to struggle. Silver, which stabilized after a historic plunge last week, dropped as much as 1 before paring some of its losses%.
Here were some of the most notable moves across the software and tech space.
Traders are taking the recent decline in tech as an opportunity to buy the dip, a winning strategy that has persisted for the last several years, Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, told Business Insider.
“People are coming in again, and whether it’ll be successful in the future, nobody knows. But that’s the trend that’s worked over the last 18 months,” he added.
“A miserable week for tech mercifully approaches the finish line today,” Joe Mazzola, a head of trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab, wrote on Friday morning.
