Stocks Closed Higher Friday, Ended a Down Week

U.S. stocks rallied on Friday, as financial, commodity-related and other beaten-down shares rebounded. The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 313.66 points, or 2.00%, to 15,973.84, but booked a 1.4% weekly loss. The S&P 500 gained 35.70 points, or 1.95%, to 1,864.78 but ended the week 0.8% lower. The Nasdaq Composite rose 70.68 points, or 1.66%, to 4,337.51 and ended the week 0.6% lower.

Oil futures enjoyed their best one-day rally on Friday. West Texas Intermediate crude jumped more than 12% as a major oil producer again raised the possibility of a coordinated cut in crude output. March WTI crude climbed by $3.23, or 12.3%, to settle at $29.44 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

Consumer spending regained momentum in January as households increased purchases of a variety of goods, the Commerce Department said Friday, in a hopeful sign that economic growth was picking up after slowing to a crawl at the end of 2015.

iRobot Co. (IRBT) updated its first quarter earnings guidance on Wednesday. The company provided earnings per share guidance of ($0.03)-$0.04 for the period, compared to the Thomson Reuters consensus earnings per share estimate of $0.29.

Visa disclosed the details of its ownership stake in the mobile payment services company Square. According to a regulatory filing, Visa owns 4.2 million of Square’s Class B shares. While Class B shares are not traded publicly, Visa could convert up to 3.5 million of its Class B shares to Class A, which would give Visa a 9.99 percent ownership of that class of shares. That conversion would amount to just 1 percent of Square’s total outstanding shares, however.