Wall Street rebounds, with a boost from tech

Jumps for Big Tech on Thursday helped U.S. stock indexes claw back much of their slide from the day before.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 index rose 38.42 points, or 0.7%, to 5,199.06 and recovered most of its Wednesday loss, caused by worries that interest rates may stay high for a while. The Nasdaq composite charged up by 271.84 points, or 1.7%, to a record 16,442.20. The Dow Jones industrial average, which has less of an emphasis on tech, was the laggard. It slipped by 2.43 points, or less than 0.1%, to 38,459.08.

Apple was the strongest force pushing the market upward, and it climbed 4.3% to trim its loss for the year so far. Nvidia was close behind, as it keeps riding a frenzy around artificial-intelligence technology. The chip company rose 4.1% to take its gain for the year to 83%. Amazon added 1.7% and set a record after topping its prior high set in 2021.

It’s a return to last year’s form, when a handful of Big Tech stocks was responsible for the majority of the market’s gains. This year, the gains had been spreading out. That is, until worries about stubbornly high inflation sent a chill through financial markets.

In the bond market, which has been driving much of Wall Street’s action, Treasury yields held relatively steady after a mixed batch of data on inflation and the U.S. economy.

When or whether the Federal Reserve will deliver the cuts to interest rates that traders are craving has been one of the questions dominating Wall Street. After coming into the year forecasting at least six rate cuts, traders have scaled back their expectations. A string of hotter-than-expected reports on inflation and the economy has raised fears that last year’s progress on inflation has stalled.