NEW YORK — U.S. stocks jumped Friday in another manic day on Wall Street, while the falling value of the U.S. dollar and other swings in financial markets suggested fear is still high about escalations in President Donald Trump's trade war with China.
The S&P 500 rallied 1.8%, after veering repeatedly between gains and losses, to cap a chaotic and historic week full of monstrous swings. The Dow Jones Industrial Average went from an early loss of nearly 340 points to a gain of 810 before settling at a rise of 619 points, or 1.6%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 2.1%.
Stocks kicked higher as pressure eased a bit from within the U.S. bond market. It's typically the more boring corner of Wall Street, but it's been flashing serious enough signals of worry this week that it's demanded investors' and Trump's attention.
The yield on the 10-year Treasury topped 4.58% in the morning, up from 4.01% a week ago. That's a major move for a market that typically measures things in hundredths of a percentage point. Such jumps can drive up rates for mortgages and other loans going to U.S. households and businesses, which would slow the economy, and they can indicate stress in the financial system.
But Treasury yields eased back as the afternoon progressed, and the 10-year yield regressed to 4.48%. That's still higher than the day before, but not by as eye-wateringly much.
Susan Collins, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, told the Financial Times that the Fed ''would absolutely be prepared'' if markets become disorderly and ''does have tools to address concerns about market functioning or liquidity should they arise.''
Several reasons could be behind this week's jump in U.S. Treasury yields, which is unusual because yields typically fall when fear is high.
Investors outside the United States could be selling their U.S. bonds because of the trade war, and hedge funds could be selling whatever's available in order to raise cash to cover other losses. More worryingly, doubts may be rising about the United States' reputation as the world's safest place to keep cash because of Trump's frenetic, on-and-off tariff actions.