Wall Street edges up in bumpy end to brutal week

By Lewis Krauskopf

(Reuters) - U.S. stocks held modest gains on Friday in another volatile session during a week of huge swings that shook the market out of months of calm.

During Friday's session alone, the S&P 500 swung from as high as up 1.5 percent to down 1.9 percent, echoing the big swings of the past week. The Dow moved in a range of more than 800 points.

The fresh volatility came a day after the benchmark S&P 500 and the Dow industrials confirmed they were in correction territory, both falling more than 10 percent from Jan. 26 record highs. On Friday, the intraday low for the tech-heavy Nasdaq also pulled it more than 10 percent from its recent peak.

Friday's session marked the latest day of sharp swings in the past week that have pulled stocks lower after a steady climb for months to record highs.

"I just think the market has to find new footing here," said Peter Tuz, president of Chase Investment Counsel in Charlottesville, Virginia. "We are in very sloppy territory, until we're not in sloppy territory."

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 40.58 points, or 0.17 percent, to 23,901.04, the S&P 500 gained 6.87 points, or 0.27 percent, to 2,587.87 and the Nasdaq Composite added 18.92 points, or 0.28 percent, to 6,796.08.

Technology was among the best performing groups. Energy shares lagged as oil prices tumbled.

The Dow Jones Transport Average index fell 1.3 percent. The index was dragged down by shares of package delivery companies FedEx and United Parcel Service after a report said Amazon.com is preparing to launch a delivery service for businesses.

The sharp selloff in recent days was kicked off by concerns over rising inflation and bond yields, sparked by last week's January U.S. jobs report.

Equities for years have looked relatively attractive compared to the low yields offered by bonds, but the rise in Treasury yields has diminished the allure of stocks, especially with stock valuations at historically expensive levels.

The yield on benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasuries hovered around 2.82 percent after touching a four-year peak of 2.885 percent on Monday.

"That's part of this recalculation that has gone on in the market: How do we factor in higher bond yields?" said Willie Delwiche, investment strategist at Baird in Milwaukee. "And that is a process that is playing out."

The S&P 500 lost $2.49 trillion in market value since Jan. 26 through Thursday, according to S&P Dow Jones Indices.

Volatility remained high compared to recent months. The market's main gauge of volatility, the Cboe Volatility Index, hovered around 34 on Friday, about three times the average level of the past year.

(Additional reporting by Sruthi Shankar in Bengaluru, Caroline Valetkevitch in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Nick Zieminski)