The stock market has been looking for a strong recovery, and on Friday, it finally got one. Even though investors are still uncertain about what another potential round of federal government stimulus might look like or whether the COVID-19 crisis will continue, they nevertheless feel confident that the long-range prospects for the economy and the markets are sound. That helped lift the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJINDICES:^DJI), S&P 500 (SNPINDEX:^GSPC) and Nasdaq Composite (NASDAQINDEX:^IXIC) considerably on Friday.

Today’s stock market

Data source: Yahoo! Finance.

Earlier this year, investors seemed to have the idea that the key to a permanent recovery would be for things to return as much to normal as possible. As 2020 has progressed, though, many market participants are getting more comfortable with the idea that the pandemic might create some