*By Carlo Versano*
Stocks bounced back Friday with the Dow Industrials opening higher by 400 points and a strong showing from the FAANG stocks.
At the open, shares of Facebook ($FB), Amazon ($AMZN), Apple ($AAPL), Netflix ($NFLX), and Google parent Alphabet ($GOOGL) added $100 billion to the companies' collective market cap, erasing half the losses from the past two days.
The rally follows a bruising two-day sell-off on Wall Street. A bevy of factors has contributed to the worst week for stocks since February. Among them, worries over tightening monetary policy and the effects of a trade war with China starting to show themselves.
The White House dispatched top officials to quell concerns over the turmoil, even as the president extended his attack on Fed Chair Jerome Powell for what he called "loco" rate hikes.
Treasury Sec. Steve Mnuchin said on CNBC Friday that the markets were seeing a "natural correction" after riding so high since Trump's election. Economic adviser Larry Kudlow [told Cheddar](https://www.cheddar.com/videos/kudlow-tech-still-aint-bad-even-with-correction) tech stocks still "ain't bad" despite leading the markets downward.
Darden, the parent company of chain restaurants like Olive Garden and Ruth's Chris Steakhouse, beat Wall Street estimates in its latest earnings report.
A former Facebook executive pled guilty to stealing more than $4 million from the company while she was employed there.
Rising safety concerns over water bead products marketed to kids have prompted major retailers like Amazon, Target and Walmart to pull some toys off their shelves.
The Congressional Budget Office said Friday it expects inflation to nearly hit the Federal Reserve's 2% target rate in 2024, as overall growth is expected to slow and unemployment is expected to rise into 2025, according to updated economic projections for the next two years.
Intel is out with a new product to challenge other big players in the space like Nvidia and AMD.
Stocks fell after the opening bell Friday but will end on another positive week.
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Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying.
The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate dropped below 7% to its lowest level since early August, another boost for prospective homebuyers who have largely been held back by sharply higher borrowing costs and heightened competition for relatively few homes for sale.
Mortgage rates have dropped below 7% for the first time since the middle of August.
