Better-than-expected earnings reports from Microsoft and Amazon during the later part of the trading week helped shift the U.S. equity market away from what had looked like another leg of the sell-off cycle that had rattled global markets for a couple of weeks: New York sold off, Seoul sold off harder, and the renewed concerns spilled back into U.S. markets.
The Dow closed at 52,485 on July 31, up 1.04 percent for the week. The S&P 500 rose 1.05 percent to close at 7,489. The Nasdaq, which had been deep in negative territory as recently as the afternoon of July 29, ended the week up 1.59 percent. The small-cap Russell 2000 finished the week little changed, up 0.16 percent, while the CBOE Volatility Index plunged 13.94 percent to settle at 15.99—a sign that the panic has eased. …