Led by Big Tech, Wall Street rebounds to its best day in weeks
NEW YORK
Wall Street burst out of its hangover Thursday as U.S. stocks bounced back in a widespread rally following their worst day since September.
The S&P 500 gained 60.54 points (1.2%) to 4,906.19 to recover three quarters of its sharp loss from the day before.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 369.54 (1%) to 38,519.84. The Nasdaq added 197.63 (1.3%) to 15,361.64. The Russell 2000 climbed 27.08 (1.4%) to 1,974.42.
Big Tech stocks led the way in a mirror reversal of the day before, when Alphabet and Microsoft sank despite reporting stronger profits than analysts expected. Microsoft climbed 1.6% a day after falling 2.7%. Google’s parent company, Alphabet, added 0.8% after tumbling 7.5%
Big Tech stocks are Wall Street’s most influential because they’re the biggest, and they’re facing high expectations after soaring much more than the rest of the market last year. Amazon and Meta Platforms reported their latest results after trading ended for the day and faced similar pressure to deliver big numbers to justify their runs higher.
Meta Platforms, the owner of Facebook and Instagram, was a star in afterhours trading. It surged after topping analysts’ expectations for profit and revenue and saying it would start paying its shareholders a dividend.
Stocks broadly got a boost following a suite of reports suggesting the economy remains solid, while pressures on inflation might be easing. Such data could give the Federal Reserve more of the evidence that it wants to see of a slowdown in inflation before it will deliver the interest-rate cuts that investors crave. A day earlier, stocks fell sharply after the Fed’s chair warned it doesn’t have enough such evidence.
Traders are increasingly betting the Federal Reserve will begin cutting interest rates in May, after pushing back expectations from March. Whenever it does begin, it would mark a sharp turnaround after the Fed hiked its main interest rate to the highest level since 2001 in hopes of getting inflation under control.