Dow Rockets ~758 Points as Wall Street Fights Back after a Brutal Tech-and-Crypto Week

CNBC, Bloomberg, the Wall Street Journal, AP, Market Watch, Investor’s Business Daily, and Reuters contributed to this report.

Stocks made a bid for calm on Friday, with the Dow ripping higher and the broader market trying to stitch together a positive finish after a week defined by a tech sell-off and a freaky crypto swoon.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped about 758 points (≈1.6%), hitting an intraday record near 49,655, helped by heavyweights such as Caterpillar and Goldman Sachs. The S&P 500 climbed roughly 1%, nudging back into the green for 2026, while the Nasdaq gained about 0.7% — though both indexes still looked set to finish the week in the red (the S&P roughly -1% for the week, the Nasdaq nearer -3%). The Dow, oddly enough, sits slightly up week-to-date.

This rebound came even as Amazon took a hit — shares plunged roughly 9% after a small earnings miss and a monster $200 billion capital-spending plan for 2026 that has investors fretting about near-term margins. Still, other big tech names rallied off their deep weekly losses: Nvidia was up about 3% and Microsoft climbed close to 1%, trimming some of their earlier damage.

Crypto drama didn’t help the mood earlier: Bitcoin plunged about 16% overnight and briefly fell below $61,000, then staged a bounce and added roughly 7% on Friday to trade back above $68,000. The whipsaw in crypto rippled into equities: crypto-linked names like Robinhood popped nearly 12% and Coinbase rose about 6.6% as traders reacted to the rebound.

Software stocks — the epicenter of the week’s panic after fresh AI fears — showed a small recovery. The iShares Expanded Tech-Software ETF (IGV) jumped nearly 3% on Friday, clawing back some losses after a brutal run (the fund is down about 9% this week and had fallen more than 24% earlier in the year amid worries that new AI tools could cannibalize traditional software revenue).

Barclays strategist Venu Krishna tried to soothe nerves, saying the market’s reassessment of AI narratives “does not materially alter our constructive view on the fundamentals of the Big Tech companies” and that earnings profiles remain resilient. Translation: analysts still see room for the big cloud and chip players to ride this out — but investors want proof the capex and AI bets will pay off.

Outside tech, the tape was mixed. Stellantis plunged after a massive restructuring charge, European markets were jittery, and metals saw their own roller-coaster — gold ticked higher while silver slid again. Bond markets were calm by comparison: the 10-year Treasury yield eased a touch.

Bottom line: Friday felt like a regroup rather than a resolution. Wall Street pared losses and appointed a short-term ceasefire after a nerve-rattling stretch, but the week’s themes — huge AI capex plans, software vulnerability to AI disruption, and crypto volatility — are still very much in play. Investors left the day wondering which story will stick: a stabilizing market or another round of headline-driven chaos.