NEW YORK — The NASDAQ composite index ended a rocky week with its biggest point gain ever Friday as investors snapped up technology stocks with strong prospects for earnings growth. Blue-chip stocks turned lower due to weakness in financial stocks.
The NASDAQ rose 178.89 to 4,446.45, topping its previous record point gain, 168.21, set Feb. 22. The Dow Jones industrial average slipped 2.79 to close at 11,111.48. Broader stock indicators were mostly higher.
The technology rally rounded out a week of intense volatility on Wall Street. The NASDAQ, which plunged 349 points Monday and as much as 574 points Tuesday before recovering, ended the week down just 126.38, a loss of 2.8 percent. The Dow, meanwhile, rose 189.56, or 1.7 percent over the week.
Friday's calm session, when the New York Stock Exchange recorded its lowest regular-session volume of the year to date, helped investors wipe away some memories of Tuesday's chaotic session. The short-lived shakeout inflicted the most damage on the NASDAQ as investors questioned prices on many of the technology stocks they had bid dramatically higher on the promise of future earnings growth.
Ultimately, the sell-off drove technology stocks to more affordable levels, prompting some investors to look for bargains. But investors, still wary of the volatile sector, confined much of their buying to stocks that have proven track records and earnings.
That was the case Friday, when investors sought out shares of companies that are already earning money and growing quickly. Qualcomm rose 13 1/8 to 152 1/4 and JDS Uniphase gained 10 3/8 to 121 7/8.
The Dow's technology components were also higher. Intel rose 7 to 136 13/16 and Hewlett Packard rose 5 7/8 to 154.
"This market continues to be driven by the continued enthusiasm of technology investors," said Alan Skrainka, chief market strategist at Edward Jones of St. Louis.
That helped offset some weakness that came from a mixed government jobs report.
The Labor Department reported the nation's unemployment rate held steady at 4.1 percent in March, above the 4 percent some economists had been expecting. And average hourly earnings, a key gauge of inflation pressures, rose 0.4 percent to $13.60 in March, also in line with analysts' estimates.
"That was fairly benign, and may have given people some reason to get back into the market," said Dan Goldfarb, sector manager at mutual fund company David L. Babson & Co.
But the government also reported a surprisingly strong 416,000 jobs were added to business payrolls in March, the largest gain since February 1996. Government analysts said a number of special factors led to big gain in job growth, including the hiring of census workers.
The job report raised expectations that the Federal Reserve would boost interest rates next month in its ongoing effort to slow the economy and keep inflation under control. Financial stocks, which are highly sensitive to rising interest rates, slipped. J.P. Morgan fell 4 3/4 to 129 7/8, accounting for most of the Dow's losses.
The broad market held its gains after Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan defended the central bank's five interest rate increases over the past 10 months in a speech in St. Louis.
"We need to be careful to keep inflationary pressures contained," Greenspan said in remarks to the National Technology Forum. "The evidence that inflation inhibits economic growth and job creation is too credible to ignore."