By Sinéad Carew and Sophie Kiderlin NEW YORK/ LONDON, Feb 6 (Reuters) – MSCI's global equities gauge was up more than 1% on Friday after falling in five of the last six sessions, while bitcoin also attempted a comeback from a sharp selloff and spot gold and silver prices attempted to regain some lost ground. Oil prices were choppy as investors monitored talks between the United States and Iran and assessed the possibility of a supply-disrupting Middle East conflict. An equities rally on Wall Street boosted the global index as investors crept back into U.S. technology stocks, particularly semiconductors. Tech shares sold off massively in the prior three sessions on concerns around spending and competition disruption related to the artificial intelligence boom. AMAZON SPENDING PLAN INFLATES AI TOTAL Amazon.com shares fell sharply after it announced huge spending plans late on Thursday, upping the total for a combined 2026 AI spending spree by Amazon, Microsoft, Alphabet and Meta Platforms to an estimated $600 billion. The sector was also hit by worries about AI disruption in the software and data services sectors. Regarding the S&P's bounce on Friday, Robert Pavlik, senior portfolio manager at Dakota Wealth in Fairfield, Connecticut, pointed to technical buying after the benchmark index hit its 100-day moving average on Thursday, adding to some support from bitcoin's turnaround and investor reconsideration of AI fears. "The market looks like it was getting a bit overdone to the downside so you're seeing a rebound in technology and some industrials and financials stocks. It was a healthy selloff," said Pavlik, also suggesting that investors had recalculated when AI disruption to the software industry would materialize. "Maybe in the future, but it's not happening right away and the realization that this is not something that's happening today brought a little bit cooler heads to the market," he said. But gains were mostly concentrated in chipmakers, with the Philadelphia semiconductor index rallying 5.7% after three daily losses in a row. The S&P 500's software and services index climbed a modest 1.7% after losing more than 17% in the last seven sessions. On Wall Street at 2:45 p.m. ET (1945 GMT), the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 1,069.60 points, or 2.19%, to 49,978.32 after briefly breaching the 50,000 milestone for the first time. The S&P 500 rose 113.48 points, or 1.67%, to 6,911.88 and the Nasdaq Composite rose 413.68 points, or 1.84%, to 22,954.27. MSCI's gauge of stocks across the globe rose 13.53 points, or 1.32%, to 1,040.77, eying its biggest one-day gain since November. But the index of stocks from 47 countries was still showing a decline for the week. Earlier, the pan-European STOXX 600 index finished up 0.89% but it fell slightly for the week. CRYPTO, PRECIOUS BOUNCE Cryptocurrencies managed to staunch a bruising selloff for now after a wipeout on Thursday, which was part of a larger decline that has knocked $2 trillion in value from the market since October. Bitcoin gained 11.44% to $70,337.93 after nearing $60,000 on Thursday. Ethereum rose 11.18% to $2,053.26. "Whether or not this bounce continues is questionable. It's brought some questions into bitcoin as a store of value and the relative safety that it brings but, when it bounces, you don't get the margin calls like you would probably be getting when it's selling off," said Pavlik. In the precious metals markets, gold advanced with help from bargain hunting, a slightly weaker dollar and lingering concerns over U.S.-Iran talks in Oman. Silver recovered from a 1-1/2-month low. Spot gold rose 3.81% to $4,951.46 an ounce while U.S. gold futures rose 2% to $4,958.50 an ounce. Spot silver rose 8.24% to $77.12 an ounce. SURVEY SHOWS IMPROVEMENT IN U.S. CONSUMER SENTIMENT In currencies, the safe-haven dollar index was lower as risk assets rebounded. Earlier, the greenback pared some losses after a U.S. survey showed that consumer sentiment improved marginally in early February amid lingering worries about the labor market and the rising cost of living. The dollar index, which measures the greenback against a basket of currencies including the yen and the euro, fell 0.32% to 97.64, with the euro up 0.36% at $1.1817. Sterling strengthened 0.67% to $1.3615. But against the Japanese yen, the dollar strengthened 0.05% to 157.11, with Japanese markets set to come back into focus as investors keep a close eye on Sunday's election, in which Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi aims to strengthen her majority in parliament. In U.S. Treasuries, two-year U.S. Treasury yields hit a more than three-month low before turning higher, following a sharp decline on Thursday when unexpectedly weak labor market data raised concerns that the jobs market is worsening faster than thought. On the U.S. monetary policy front, traders were still betting that the next Fed rate cut would be in June, according to the CME Group's FedWatch tool. The 2-year note yield, which typically moves in step with interest rate expectations for the Federal Reserve, rose 1.5 basis points to 3.498%, from 3.483% late on Thursday. The yield on benchmark U.S. 10-year notes was flat at 4.21% while the 30-year bond yield fell 0.4 basis points to 4.8592%. In energy markets, oil prices settled slightly higher as traders waited for news on the U.S.-Iran talks. Iran's top diplomat said the nuclear talks mediated by Oman were off to a good start and set to continue. The remarks could allay concern that failure to reach a deal might nudge the Middle East closer to war. U.S. crude settled up 0.41%, or 26 cents, at $63.55 a barrel and Brent settled at $68.05 per barrel, up 0.74%, or 50 cents. (Reporting by Sinéad Carew, Sophie Kiderlin, Gregor Stuart Hunter, Rae Wee and Tom Westbrook; Additional reporting by Dhara Ranasinghe; Editing by Jacqueline Wong, Andrew Heavens Gareth Jones, David Holmes and Edmund Klamann)
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