After some volatile trading, the American stock exchanges closed upwards on Friday. The broad S&P index rose 0.7 percent, the technology-heavy Nasdaq composite index gained 1.3 percent, and the Dow Jones index went up 0.1 percent.
IT giant Alphabet, Google's parent company and one of the stock exchange's heaviest-weighted companies, rose 1.5 percent. The company reported a 50 percent profit increase for the first quarter of the year the day before, a result that exceeded analysts' forecasts.
Chip manufacturer Nvidia, also an index-heavy stock, also rose – up 4.3 percent. Competitor Intel, on the other hand, went in the opposite direction after the processor manufacturer announced lower revenue and profit for the year than analysts had expected. The stock fell 6.7 percent.
For the entire past week, the S&P rose 4.6 percent, the Dow Jones 2.5 percent, and the Nasdaq 6.7 percent.
