New York, February 6, 2026, 13:35 EST — Regular session
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,042.28 points, or 2.13%, to 49,951.00 by 1:19 p.m. EST on Friday, climbing back toward the 50,000 level. It had ended Thursday down 1.20% at 48,908.72. The S&P 500 added 1.64% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.91%, with Nvidia up more than 7% while Amazon fell over 6%. 1
The bounce followed a bruising tech rout earlier in the week, with chip names helping to drag the broader market higher even as investors stayed wary about the near-term hit from heavy spending on artificial intelligence. “We’re going to continue to see these ebbs and flows,” said Ben Falcone, a managing director at Kayne Anderson Rudnick, pointing to concerns that are “more longer term in nature.” 2
A fresh read on households underscored why the next data prints matter: U.S. consumer sentiment rose to 57.3 in early February, the highest since August, but anxiety over jobs and the cost of living linked to import-tariff inflation remained widespread, Reuters reported. “We may have seen the trough in consumer sentiment,” said Oren Klachkin, a financial markets economist at Nationwide, while survey director Joanne Hsu said sentiment “remained at dismal levels” for consumers without stock holdings. 3
Even with Friday’s rally, the Nasdaq and S&P 500 were still poised for weekly losses after entering the day down about 4% and 2%, respectively, Investopedia reported. Bitcoin rebounded above $70,000 after sliding toward $60,000 overnight, while the 10-year Treasury yield rose to about 4.22%. 4
Amazon’s slide was a drag on the Dow after the company projected $200 billion of capital expenditures — or capex — in 2026, up from $131 billion in 2025, and its shares dropped in after-hours trading on Thursday, Reuters reported. CEO Andy Jassy defended the cloud unit’s growth rate at scale, saying “it’s very different having 24% year-over-year growth on $142 billion annualized run rate” than rivals on smaller bases. “The market just dislikes the substantial amount of money that keeps getting put into capex for these growth rates,” said Dave Wagner, a portfolio manager at Aptus Capital Advisors. 5
On the labor front, the number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits rose to 231,000 in the week ended Jan. 31, up 22,000 from the prior week, the U.S. Labor Department said. The four-week moving average climbed to 212,250. 6
But the rebound does not settle the argument that sparked the selloff. Investors are still trying to gauge whether the AI spending wave produces earnings fast enough to justify today’s prices, and a quick move higher in bond yields can still sting the parts of the market that trade on long-dated growth.
The next test comes quickly, with the federal government shutdown delaying key U.S. releases that often drive rate expectations. The employment report was pushed to Feb. 11 and the consumer price index report to Feb. 13, S&P Global Market Intelligence said, flagging both as potential movers for Fed policy expectations. 7
