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Market Recap: Friday, October 16

Stocks closed mixed Friday as markets looked to recover some of the last three days’ worth of losses. Investors digested a slate of upbeat announcements from major companies like Boeing and Pfizer, in addition to a much better than expected print on spending by the U.S. consumer.

Video Transcript

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SEANA SMITH: Welcome back to "The Final Round" here on Yahoo Finance, wrapping up the trading week with gains today, at least for the Dow and the S&P. The Dow closing up just over 100 points, so well off the highs of the day. S&P right around the flatline. We're going to wait till the final trade to shake out, but the NASDAQ flipping into negative territory in the final hour of trading, closing off, it looks like, just around 4/10 of a percent.

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Now looking at the action, today was pretty interesting. Energy leading to the downside. That had been the case all day. But consumer discretionary, one of the sectors here losing momentum in the final hour or so of trading. Also real estate, that defensive play losing some momentum here. Those three sectors are the worst performers today.

But taking a look at the stocks on a weekly basis, I mean, it was a bit of a different picture. The outperformers here, at least sector wise, were industrials and technology. A couple of big movers in the market today, we got that retail sales number out before the bell this morning, better than expected, showing that sales rose 1.9% in the month of September. So therefore, consumers showing some signs of strength.

And I think that comes as maybe a surprise to some investors, just given the current climate that we are in right now, and also given the fact that we don't have any stimulus deal coming out of Washington. And that, of course, is one of the things keeping gains in check today.

And then we also have to mention the latest when it comes to coronavirus. A number of cases here in the US and over in Europe certainly trending in the wrong direction. So that, of course, is a big risk for investors, as we look ahead to next week.