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STORY: U.S. stocks ended higher on Friday to record their biggest weekly percentage gains of the year as worries of an economic downturn eased.

The Dow added about one-quarter of a percent. The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq each rose two-tenths of a percent, marking the seventh straight session of gains for both.

Stocks recouped losses from their tailspin two weeks ago. The sell-off was sparked by weak economic data and heightened recession fears.

But a barrage of high profile economic data this week, including the Labor Department's consumer price index and a retail sales report from the Commerce Department, provided assurances that inflation continues to ease and consumer spending remains healthy.

Joy Yang is head of product management and marketing at MarketVector Indexes.

"So we saw last week a dramatic fall across the board in markets. And you know, perhaps we've overreacted. But, you know, if you take a step back and look at year to date, markets are pretty strong. If you were on holiday and you didn't look at the news and you came back, you would see that the S&P pretty strong year to date and it's, you know close to 20%, Nvidia still above over 100%. You look at gold, you look at bitcoin, you know they're still really positive and strong numbers year to date."

Stocks on the move included Applied Materials, which slid about 2%, reversing its surge after the chip-making equipment firm forecast stronger-than-expected fourth-quarter revenue.

U.S.-listed shares of Amcor dropped more than 3.5% after the packaging company posted a bigger-than-anticipated decline in fourth-quarter sales.

Investors turn their focus next week to the Federal Reserve symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where Chair Jerome Powell will deliver a keynote speech that will potentially offer clues about when the central bank will start cutting rates.