A late session rally powered the benchmark US indices back into the black and back out of official correction to cap a volatile week - Dow rallied +330-points or +1.38% after trading in a 1,021 point range intra-day. The broader S&P500 gained +39-points or 1.49% as buying emerged when the index dipped below its 200-day moving average (2,539.26) for the first time since 2016. Ten of the eleven sectors gained ground, with Information Technology (up +2.5%) leading the pack while Energy (down -0.40%) was the only laggard. The technology-centric NASDAQ +1.44%. Congress voted to pass a budget deal that will provide the US government with funding for the next two years, after it shut down briefly early last Friday (9 February) morning. The deal would raise overall spending caps by ~US$300 billion over two years. In addition to pushing the next vote on the debt limit out until after November’s midterm elections, the bill funnels billions of dollars to infrastructure projects and efforts to fight the opioid crisis. It also repeals a cost-control board set up by President Barack Obama’s health-care law. Despite Friday's strong finish the major indices logged their worst weekly performance since January 2016, with both the Dow and S&P500 falling -5.2% and the Nasdaq -5.1%. As markets whipsawed, weekly trading volumes were the highest since 12 August 2011 (with total composite volume of ~54.5B shares), according to Wall Street Journal Digital Data.
