Wall Street bounces back as tech stocks recover and bitcoin stops plunging

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is bouncing back Friday from losses taken earlier in the week, as technology stocks recover some of their drops and bitcoin halts its plunge, at least for now.

The S&P 500 rose 1.2% and was heading for just its second gain in the last eight days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 814 points, or 1.7%, as of 11 a.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite was 1% higher.

Chip companies helped drive the gains, and Nvidia rallied 6.2% to trim its loss for the week, which came into the day at just over 10%. Broadcom climbed 5% to eat into its drop of 6.3% for the week.

They were the two strongest forces lifting the S&P 500, and they benefited from hopes for continued spending by customers diving into artificial-intelligence technology. Amazon, for example, said late Thursday it expects to spend about $200 billion on investments this year to take advantage of “seminal opportunities like AI, chips, robotics, and low earth orbit satellites.”

Such heavy spending, similar to what Alphabet announced a day earlier, is creating concerns of its own, though. The question is whether all those dollars will prove to be worth it and create much bigger profits in the future. With doubt remaining about that, Amazon’s stock dropped 8.3%.

Even with Friday's rebound, the S&P 500 is still heading toward its third losing week in the last four. Besides worries about big AI spending by Big Tech companies, whose stocks are the most influential on Wall Street, concerns about AI potentially stealing customers away from software companies also hurt the market through the week. The hits for software stocks accelerated after AI firm Anthropic released free tools to automate things like legal services.

Bitcoin, meanwhile, steadied following a weekslong plunge that had sent it more than halfway below its record price set in October. It climbed back above $68,000 after briefly dropping close to $60,000 late Thursday.

Prices in the metals market also calmed a bit following their own wild swings. Gold rose 1.6% to $4,968.20 per ounce, while silver slipped 0.8%.

Their prices suddenly ran out of momentum last week following jaw-dropping rallies, which were driven by investors clamoring for something safe to own amid worries about political turmoil, a U.S. stock market that critics called expensive and huge debt loads for governments worldwide. By January, prices for gold and silver were surging so quickly that critics called it unsustainable.

On Wall Street, the recovery for bitcoin helped stocks of companies enmeshed in the crypto economy. Robinhood Markets jumped 13.5% for the biggest gain in the S&P 500. Crypto trading platform Coinbase Global rose 9.5%. Strategy, the company that’s made a business of buying and holding bitcoin, soared 19%.

Stocks of smaller U.S. companies also helped lead the market, along with companies whose profits depend on U.S. households spending more money. They benefited from potentially encouraging data on how U.S. consumers are feeling.

A preliminary report from the University of Michigan suggested sentiment among U.S. consumers is improving slightly, when economists were expecting to see a drop. The improvement was strongest among households who own stocks, which are benefiting from the S&P 500 setting a record late last month.

To be sure, sentiment “remained at dismal levels for consumers without stock holdings,” according to Surveys of Consumers Director Joanne Hsu.

Airline stocks were strong with hopes that more confidence among U.S. households will translate into more spending on trips. That included gains of 7.1% for United Airlines, 6.3% for American Airlines and 5.7% for Delta Air Lines.

The smaller stocks in the Russell 2000 index, meanwhile, jumped 2.6% to more than double the gain of the S&P 500. Smaller companies' profits can be more dependent on the strength of the U.S. economy than those for big, multinational rivals.

In stock markets abroad, indexes rose across much of Europe.

That was even though Stellantis, the auto giant whose stock trades in Italy, lost nearly 26% after saying it would take a charge of 22 billion euros, or $26 billion, as it dials back its electric vehicle production. The automaker acknowledged “over-estimating the pace of the energy transition” and said it was resetting its business “to align the company with the real-world preferences of its customers.”

Stocks fell across much of Asia, but Japan’s Nikkei 225 rose 0.8%. It benefited from a 2% climb for Toyota Motor, which said CEO Koji Sato will step down in April and will be replaced by the company’s chief financial officer, Kenta Kon.

In the bond market, Treasury yields held relatively steady. The yield on the 10-year Treasury erased an earlier modest loss and was holding at 4.21%, where it was late Thursday.

The yield on the two-year Treasury ticked up to 3.50% from 3.47%.

It more closely follows expectations for what the Federal Reserve will do, and the Fed has put its cuts to interest rates on hold for now, despite loud protests from President Donald Trump. The president has been lobbying for lower rates, which would help juice the economy but could also worsen inflation.

AP Business Writers Chan Ho-him and Matt Ott contributed.

Traders Edward McCarthy, left, and Edward Curran work on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Bob's Discount Furniture President & CEO Bill Barton rings a ceremonial bell on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange as his company's IPO begins trading, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Robert FInnerty Jr. works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Michael Conlon, right, works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Trader Jeffrey Vazquez works on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange, Thursday, Feb. 5, 2026. (AP Photo/Richard Drew)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders work near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

Currency traders watch monitors near a screen showing the Korea Composite Stock Price Index (KOSPI), top center, and the foreign exchange rate between U.S. dollar and South Korean won, top center left, at the foreign exchange dealing room of the Hana Bank headquarters in Seoul, South Korea, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Ahn Young-joon)

MILAN (AP) — Vice President JD Vance met Friday with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni — one of the Trump administration's closer allies in Europe — during his trip to Italy for the Olympic Games.

Vance is on a weeklong visit that combines sports and diplomacy, meeting with Meloni at a time when U.S. relations with Europe have become increasingly strained under President Donald Trump, who has shaken up the rules-based order that has been at the center of U.S. foreign policy since World War II.

The vice president started his day at the Milano Ice Skating Arena, watching the opening session of the three-day team figure skating competition with his family and Secretary of State Marco Rubio. Vance then headed to the Prefettura di Milano, a Milan palace now used as a municipal building, for a bilateral meeting with Meloni that lasted about an hour and was followed by a closed-door lunch.

Meloni began her remarks in Italian. After a moment, she switched to English, joking that Vance probably didn’t understand what she had been saying.

Vance quipped that he'd been able to learn Italian since last coming to Italy. He hadn't. His last visit was when he saw Meloni in Rome after meeting with Pope Leo XIV in May.

“I was saying that I’m happy to have you here to have the occasion to talk about our wonderful bilateral relation,” Meloni said.

The prime minister said they'd discuss several topics of bilateral cooperation, but also mentioned meeting at the Olympics, which she called “events that tell about values that keep together Italy and the U.S.” and “western civilization.”

While Meloni was speaking, Tilman Fertitta, the U.S. ambassador to Italy, walked in and greeted Vance, mentioning that, “It’s hard to get around." The security measures involved in staging the Olympics have meant traffic closures and other logistical headaches.

Vance’s office later released a statement saying he and Meloni also made a private visit to the Pinacoteca di Brera art museum for about half an hour.

The vice president's office said in a statement that during the meeting with the prime minster, she and Vance discussed the strength of bilateral relations between the nations, the Olympics and mutual efforts to improve the business and investment climate.

Meloni has cultivated a close relationship with Trump, visiting him at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in early January 2025, even before he took office for his second term. At the time, he called her a “fantastic woman” and the two have since praised each other.

More recently, however, Meloni has sided with top U.S. allies in Europe in opposing Trump's push to take control of Greenland, a semiautonomous territory of NATO ally Denmark.

During the short portion of the meeting where reporters were present, the two leaders only exchanged pleasantries. Vance and Rubio did not answer shouted questions about talks between the U.S. and Iran.

“In the spirit of the Olympics friendship, competition — competition based on rules — and just coming together around shared values, we’re very, very thrilled to be here, and we’ll have a great conversation about number of topics,” Vance told Meloni. He added that he'd been excited to go to the Olympics in Milan “pretty much since I became vice president.”

Weissert reported from Washington.

Vice President JD Vance, center, and his wife Usha Vance applaud while Madison Chock and Evan Bates of the United States compete during the figure skating ice dance team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Vice President JD Vance, center, and his wife Usha Vance attend the figure skating ice dance team event at the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (AP Photo/Francisco Seco)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, right, and US Vice President JD Vance hold a bilateral meeting during his visit to the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)

Italy's Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni, right, and US Vice President JD Vance hold a bilateral meeting during his visit to the 2026 Winter Olympics, in Milan, Italy, Friday, Feb. 6, 2026. (Kevin Lamarque/Pool Photo via AP)