NEW YORK (AFP) – Wall Street stocks finished a lacklustre week on a positive note on Friday (Aug 20), rallying in a wave of bargain-hunting and cutting their losses for the week.

Major indices still were in the red for the week, but all 11 sectors of the S&P 500 advanced, led by technology, utilities and communications services.

The market is still operating with a “buy the dip mentality,” said TD Ameritrade’s JJ Kinahan. “It’s the same trend seen most of the year, and this time it came despite worries about Fed policy, the Delta variant and a slowdown in China.”

The broad-based S&P 500 gained 0.8 per cent to 4,441.67, but down 0.6 per cent for the week.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed 0.7 per cent to 35,120.08 while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index jumped 1.2 per cent to 14,714.66.

Friday’s gains followed losses earlier in the week in the wake of a poor July retail sales report and the Federal Reserve’s signal it likely will begin tapering stimulus this year.

Among individual companies, Tesla gained 1 per cent after chief executive Elon Musk touted the electric car maker’s artificial intelligence investments in a presentation on Thursday night.

Shares in the company had taken a hit earlier in the week following news that the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had launched a probe of Tesla’s Autopilot system following a series of crashes.

Ross Stores fell 2.7 per cent on the company’s outlook, which highlighted the impact of rising freight and supply chain costs. The company’s tone was more downcast than other retailers.

Another retailer, Foot Locker, jumped 7.3 per cent after reporting better-than-expected results.