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This week was one for the record books, with record highs, deep lows, and a trade war filled with starts and stops that left investors spinning.

When it is all said and done, the markets should end the week up, thanks to a rally on Friday spurred by solid bank earnings and optimism on a deal in the trade war with China.

As of 2:45 p.m. ET on Friday the S&P 500 was up about 90 points to 5,360 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped around 600 points to 40,190. The Nasdaq had risen roughly 300 points to 16,680 while the Russell 2000 rose about 16 points to 1,850.

For the week, barring any wild swings one way or another, the S&P 500 climbed roughly 5.6%. The Dow was on pace to be up 4.9% for the week, while the Nasdaq Composite was on track to gain roughly 4.9%. The Russell 2000 index was likely to end the week up 1.2%.

That is a stark difference from last week, when the Nasdaq and Russell 2000 fell more than 10% after President Donald Trump’s tariff announcement, while the S&P 500 was off about 9% and the Dow dropped 7%. The Nasdaq and Russell 2000 had been in bear market territory, dropping more than 20% YTD.

But as of Friday, the Nasdaq was off roughly 13% YTD and the Russell 2000 index was down about 17%.

Record highs and lows

The wild volatility we saw this week was pretty much entirely due to Trump’s tariff regime. With the tariffs set to kick in on April 9, markets were tanking in the beginning of the week as the trade war escalated with both China and the European Union announcing retaliatory tariffs.

But then on Wednesday afternoon, Trump said he was pausing the additional tariffs on all of the U.S.’s trading partners, except China, for 90 days. The sense of relief among investors caused the markets to have one of their best days ever.

On Wednesday, the Nasdaq had the highest single day point gain ever, rising 1,857 points, or 12.1%. It was the second-highest percentage gain ever after January 3, 2001.

The S&P 500 rose 474 points, or 9.5%, the highest point gain ever, and the eighth highest percentage gain.

The Dow rose 2,972 points, also the highest single-day point gain. The percentage gain of 7.9% was the fourth highest ever.  

One day later, on April 10, the Dow dropped 1,104 points, the Nasdaq fell 727 points, and the S&P 500 fell 188 points. These were all top 20 all-time point drops.

Going for the gold

While stocks rebounded, investors are still jittery about the uncertain path ahead. Major Wall Street firms increased their odds of a recession and even with the 90-day pause, tariffs are still much higher. The 10% tariffs across the board on trading partners remains, and China is facing massive 145% tariffs, which should raise inflation.

As a result, gold remains a major safe haven for investors, as gold prices continue to rise.

In fact, the top stock of the week was Newmont Corp. (NYSE: NEM), a leading gold miner. Newmont rose 25% this week and is up 49% year-to-date to $55 per share.

AI stock Broadcom (Nasdaq: AVGO) had a nice week, rising 23%, while Constellation Energy (NYSE: CEG) was the third best performer, climbing 20% this week.

Other big tech leaders also recovered this week as Palantir (Nasdaq: PLTR) jumped 18% and NVIDIA (Nasdaq: NVDA) surged 16%.

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