Stock market at the end of the week

The US stock market ended Friday's trading higher, as sectors such as oil, gas, consumer services and technology strengthened.

At the close of trading on the New York Stock Exchange the Dow Jones rose 0.10% to a one-month high, the S&P 500 rose 0.92% and the Nasdaq Composite gained 1.88%.

Tech stocks shook off the decline in cryptocurrencies on Friday. Virtual currencies collapsed sharply this week and came under pressure again this Friday after FTX filed for bankruptcy protection and Chief Executive Officer Sam Bankman-Fried of FTX resigned. Bitcoin and ether declined.

It is also worth noting that Tech stocks and related crypto stocks recovered after opening this Friday. The tech sector in the S&P 500 is up 10% through Friday, its best weekly performance since April 2020. Amazon (NASDAQ: AMZN) was up more than 4% on Friday, while Google (NASDAQ: GOOGL) was 2.6% higher.

Thus, shares of Walgreens Boots Alliance (NASDAQ: WBA) gained 7.20% to close at 41.26. Nike (NYSE: NKE) gained 6.63 percent to close at 106.09. Dow Inc (NYSE: DOW) gained 6.37% to close at 53.14.

UnitedHealth Group (NYSE: UNH) shares fell 4.06% to close the session at 522.08. Shares of Merck (NYSE: MRK) were up 3.86% to close at 97.96. Johnson and Johnson (NYSE: JNJ) shares declined 2.99% to close at 169.25.

Align Technology (NASDAQ: ALGN) shares gained 11.45% to close at 218.98. Shares of VF Corporation (NYSE: VFC) gained 11.39% to close the session at 33.34.

Northrop Grumman (NYSE: NOC) shares were down 7.32% to close at 492.70. Cigna (NYSE: CI) was down 6.04% to 303.82.

Exela Technologies (NASDAQ: XELA) shares gained 50.27% to close at 0.28.

Shares of PLx Pharma (NASDAQ: PLXP) were down 37.50% to close at 0.38.

On the New York Stock Exchange, the number of gainers (2,041) exceeded the number of losers (1,057), while 101 stocks were virtually unchanged. On the Nasdaq, 2,456 stocks gained, 1,302 declined and 217 remained flat at the previous close.

The CBOE Volatility Index fell 4.33% to 22.51, hitting a new monthly low.