The Dow Jones gained 0.41%, the Nasdaq index gained 0.31% and the broader S&P 500 index gained 0.57%.

The New York market had started in the red, hampered by the renewed tension linked to the stock market drop of Deutsche Bank, treated as the new weak link in the banking sector.

But in Frankfurt, the stock of Germany's largest institution by asset size recovered at the end of the session, which somewhat calmed the nerves of operators.

"The market is digesting a very volatile week," said Adam Sarhan of 50 Park Investments. In this context, "the absence of bad news is considered a positive point. The fact that no major banks fell this week is, in itself, favorable."

In fact, the VIX index, which measures market volatility, ended down 3% after jumping 11% at the beginning of the day.

Wall Street's favorite target since the failure of three US institutions, the regional bank First Republic limited its losses (-1.44%) after having fallen up to more than 6%.

Other investors' pain sufferers in recent days have even ended in the green, such as California's PacWest (+3.19%), the Salt Lake City (Utah) Zions brand (+2.91%) or Western Alliance Bank (+5.76%), based in Phoenix (Arizona)

The sector remains under pressure and some big names in the market, such as Morgan Stanley (-2.20%) and JPMorgan Chase (-1.52%) have been battered.

"Many questions are still unanswered about the banking system," Sarhan said.

James Bullard, president of the St. Louis, Missouri, branch of the U.S. central bank (Fed) estimated at 80% "the probability that tensions on the financial system will diminish," during an intervention Thursday.

Imitating stocks, the bond market came to its senses during the session and after plunging, Treasury yields rebounded.

Initially down to 3.55%, the yield on 2-year US government bonds, more volatile at the moment than its 10-year equivalent, rose to 3.77%, against 3.83% the previous day at the close.

In the two weeks that stock markets have been living to the rhythm of hiccups in the banking system, macroeconomic indicators "have taken a back seat," according to Adam Sarhan.

This was the case again on Friday with S&P Global's purchasing managers' indices for March, which came in well above expectations for both manufacturing and services activity.

On the stock market, Activision Blizzard shone (+5.91%) after the publication of an opinion from the British Competition Authority (CMA), considering, after examination, that the acquisition of the video game publisher by Microsoft (+1.05%) would not have a "substantial" effect on the console games market in the United Kingdom.

In the wake of its slippage linked to the accusations of the Hindenburg Research fund, which accuses it of misleading investors and laxity in regulatory matters, Block remained down (-1.94%).

First beneficiary of the setbacks of TikTok, even more weakened after the hearing of its director general in Congress Thursday, Meta remained well oriented (+0.85%), as well as Snap (+1.49%), parent company of the social network Snapchat.

The company specializing in space launches for small satellites Virgin Orbit was propelled (+50.06%) by press reports on an imminent injection of funds into the capital of this company, in difficulty since the failure of a launch at the beginning of the year.

© 2023 AFP