Dow closes with strong week including 400-point Friday, after nearly a month of slumps

The Dow Jones spiked Friday by roughly 400 points, finishing a week of strong gains after three weeks of declining numbers amid widespread recession fears.

Markedly reversing a general decline that began in mid-August, stock numbers began climbing Wednesday and continued their sharp upward rise throughout the week into Friday, gaining 1,000 points total throughout the later part of the week with nearly half of that on Friday alone. 

The Dow stands now at its highest level since Aug. 26 in a turnaround investors are likely hoping signals an easy return to a stabler period of growth. 

Economic fears have persisted over the last several months of a looming recession, brought on by both soaring inflation, ongoing supply chain crises and business disruptions, and more lately by the Federal Reserve’s aggressive interest rate hikes in order to tamp down inflation. 

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell last month warned that the Fed’s efforts could bring "pain" to U.S. consumers as an unfortunate side-effect of the bank’s interest hikes.