—– Dow closes higher boosted by positive earnings forecasts from Apple and Amazon.com, while the S&P500 and Nasdaq posted their biggest percentage gains since 2020.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed at 32,845.13, up 315.50, or +0.97%.
The S&P 500 closed at 4,130.29, up 57.86, or +1.42%.
The Nasdaq closed at 12,390.69 points, up 228.09 points, or +1.88%.
—– Crude oil futures closed higher and rose this week, but concerns about the recession weighed on prices in July. Investors are watching the OPEC+ meeting, which will include Saudi Arabia and Russia on August 3. OPEC+ is not expected to increase oil production as the United States had hoped.
WTI crude futures rose $2.2 and 2.3%, respectively, to $98.62 a barrel. For the week, it rose 4.1%, but fell 6.8% in July.
BRENT crude futures rose $2.87, or 2.7%, to $110.01 a barrel. It was up 6.6% last week, but down 4.2% in July.
—– The gold contract closed in the plus, which was due to the weakening U.S. dollar. A weak dollar makes gold more attractive, as gold contracts become cheaper for holders of other currencies.
Gold futures rose $12.6, or 0.71%, to $1,781.8 per ounce, up 3.2% for the week but down 1.4% in July.
Silver futures were up 32.9 cents, or 1.66%, at $20.197 an ounce.
The platinum contract was up $13, or 1.48%, at $889.8 per ounce.
The palladium contract was up $49.50, or 2.4%, at $2,129.70 an ounce.
—– The U.S. dollar weakened against major currencies in the basket as investors worried about a recession in the U.S. following the release of weak economic data.
The dollar index against the six major currencies in a basket of currencies was down 0.42% at 105.9030.
The dollar was lower against the yen to 133.35 yen from 134.33 yen.
The dollar was lower against the Swiss franc to 0.9519 francs from 0.9552 francs.
The US dollar was also lower against the Canadian dollar at 1.2808 Canadian dollars from 1.2822 Canadian dollars.
The euro strengthened against the US dollar at $1.0224 from $1.0178.
The pound strengthened to $1.2176 from $1.2148.
The Australian dollar rose to $0.6996 from $0.6975.