us stocks finished sharply higher friday with the sp 500 index snapping three straight weeks of losses after fresh data pointed to a resilient economy despite interest rate hikes by the federal reserve the dow jones industrial average booked backtoback daily gains of 1 for the first time since november and snapped a fourweek losing streak according to dow jones market data gains in the us stock market on friday accelerated into the close with the sp 500 snapping a threeweek losing streak as investors weighed how aggressively the federal reserve may need to hike interest rates to bring inflation under control wall street has had a lot of fed speak to digest over the past week but it seems clear that traders believe we are very close to the peak despite all these signs of a resilient economy edward moya senior market analyst at oanda wrote in a friday afternoon note james solloway chief market strategist and senior portfolio manager at sei investments co remains cautious about the stock market the improvement that weve seen in the past two days merely offsets what has been some severe weakness in the last couple of weeks solloway said in a phone interview friday theres a fair amount of uncertainty out there right now stocks pulled back in february denting a strong start to 2023 as a run of hotterthanexpected jobs and inflation data saw investors reassess expectations for how high the fed will drive interest rates in a bid to get inflation under control investors have worried the feds monetary policy may need to be tighter for longer to tame sticky inflation lifting bond yields this week stocks held on to gains friday after the institute for supply management said its services index held steady at a robust 551 in february showing the us economy is still in expansion mode even as headwinds pick up consumers are still spending money said keith apton a managing director at ubs wealth management in a phone interview friday you still have unemployment thats stubbornly low but apton expects theres going to be a better entry point in the market later this year with the sp 500 potentially falling to 3800 consumers have been dipping into their savings and with the fed still raising rates he said im telling clients to brace for a mild recession in the third quarter of this year apton said he currently likes largecap value stocks and has a sector preference for defensive areas of the market such as healthcare and utilities he said he also likes international equities including developed and emerging markets and will be watching for potential economic stimulus from the chinese governments legislative session this weekend us stocks have climbed this week as a measure of market volatility fell the cboe volatility index has declined more than 14 this week to 185 on friday factset data show at last check thats below its longrun average of around 20 for the week the sp 500 gained 19 while the dow jones industrial average rose 17 and the technologyheavy nasdaq composite advanced 26 according to dow jones market data equities generally have been in a broad trading range seis solloway said we are at the upper end of that range right now