Dow tops 50,000 for the first time as stocks stage a huge rally after the week's chaotic sell-off

• US stocks soared on Friday, pushing the Dow to 50,000 for the first time ever.
• After days of selling, software stocks rose nearly 3% and the broader Nasdaq rose 2%.
• Bitcoin also climbed 12% after its brutal decline to near $60,000 on Thursday.

Stocks notched a milestone after days of heavy selling cratered tech and AI names.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average staged a stunning rally of more than 1,100 points to hit 50,000 for the first time ever before pulling back slightly. The dip-buying extended to other areas, with tech shares and bitcoin also up sharply.

The iShares Expanded Tech-Software Sector ETF — which entered a bear market this month as investors panicked over high valuations and AI's potential threat to software companies — surged nearly 3%. The ETF is still down around 30% from its peak late last year.

The Nasdaq Composite rose 2% as tech stocks rose across the board. The index also soared despite Amazon shares plummeting after the tech giant reported Q4 earnings on Thursday.

Here's where major indexes stood at the 4 p.m. ET closing bell on Friday:

• S&P 500: 6,932.30, up 1.97%
• Dow Jones Industrial Average: 50,115.67, up 2.5% (+1,206.95 points)
• Nasdaq Composite: 23,031.213, up 2.18%

Investors were also eager to jump back into other areas of the market that logged heavy losses this week. Bitcoin surged 12% after testing the $60,000 mark late Thursday. It's still down 8% since Monday.

Other areas continued to struggle. Silver, which stabilized after a historic plunge last week, dropped as much as 1% before making up its losses.

Here were some of the most notable moves across the software and tech space.

• CoreWeave: +20%

• Circle Internet Group: +14%
• Super Micro Computer: +11%
• AMD: +8%
• Nvidia: +8%
• Gen Digital: +8%

Traders are taking the recent decline in tech as an opportunity to buy the dip, a winning strategy that has persisted for the last several years, Paul Hickey, the co-founder of Bespoke Investment Group, told Business Insider.

"People are coming in again, and whether it'll be successful in the future, nobody knows. But that's the trend that's worked over the last 18 months," he added.

"A miserable week for tech mercifully approaches the finish line today," Joe Mazzola, a head of trading & derivatives strategist at Charles Schwab, wrote on Friday morning.