Stock Market: The "Plunge Protection Team" is alive and active!

It was a wild week, considering markets were only open for 3 1/2 days!

On Monday, U.S. exchanges were only open for a half day of trading. But stocks lost more than 2.0%! And normally, the day before Christmas is pretty quiet.

Markets were closed on Tuesday for Christmas.

Then on Wednesday, stocks slide in the morning and made new lows for the year. But the sell off came to a screeching halt late morning. And a monster afternoon rally, stocks experienced their best day in 10 years and the DOW had its biggest point gain in a day ever.

Thursday was another roller coaster ride. After being down 2.8%, the S&P rallied 3.7% and finished the day with a 0.9% gain.

After the wild swings, Friday was pretty tame and stocks finished slightly lower heading into the weekend.

What's moving the markets?

Of course there's ongoing concerns over the trade war and the Fed raising rates. But last week's moves weren't tied directly to news. And after making new lows for the year, it looks like buyers saw it as a buying opportunity...or maybe it was the "plunge protection team" at work?

Here's where the major indices ended the week:

• The S&P finished with a 2.9% gain. Up 69 points, the S&P ended at 2,486.
• The DOW ended higher by 2.8%. Adding 617 points, the DOW closed at 23,062.
• The NASDAQ was up 4.0%. With a 252 point gain, the NASDAQ finished at 6,585.
• Bitcoin finished higher by 0.3%. Up $10, Bitcoin ended at $3,845.

Crude Oil (CL) was lower for the 3rd week in a row. Down 0.8%, CL ended at $45.33 a barrel.

FAANG stocks did well with last week's recovery.

Facebook (FB) finished the week with a 6.6% gain, Amazon (AMZN) was up 7.3%, Apple (AAPL) was higher by 3.7%, Netflix (NFLX) added 3.9% and Google's parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) was up 5.6%.

And metals saw some nice action

Gold (GC) finished higher for the 2nd week in a row with a 1.9% gain. And Silver (SI) had its best week since July of 2016 with a 5.0% gain.

Sears (SHLDQ) is saved...at least for now. After announcing that 80 more Sears and Kmart locations will be closing, a $4.6 billion bid to save the company came through. After getting "Amazoned" over the years, the retailer filed for bankruptcy in October. The company revolutionized the retail industry with its Sears catalog and was once the largest retailer in the U.S. (passed up by Walmart in 1989).

Markets are open on Monday but will be closed on Tuesday for New Years.