Investors deal with trade anxiety
— Stocks moved broadly NEWYORK higher on Wall Street on Thursday as investors tried to shake off several days of volatile trading brought on by escalations in the U.S.-China trade war.
Investors snapped up technology stocks in a signal that they are more willing to take on risk after several days of fleeing to safer holdings, such as bonds. Microsoft rose 1.6%, and Oracle rose 1.9%.
Banks led financial stocks higher as bond yields gained ground following a sharp decline on Wednesday. The sector also got a key boost from American International Group after the insurer reported a solid second quarter.
Travel website company Booking Holdings rose 7.3% and lifted consumer-oriented stocks.
In another sign that investors were feeling more bullish, safeplay sectors like utilities and makers of consumer products lagged the market. Investors usually shun those sectors when they want to take on more risk.
Bond prices fell. The yield on the 10-year Treasury rose to 1.76% from 1.72% late Wednesday.
A sharp spike in bond prices on Wednesday signaled that investors are growing increasingly nervous about the prospect of the trade dispute between the world’s two largest economies hurting the global economy.
Investors focused on a steady flow of mostly solid corporate earnings on Thursday. Companies were rewarded nicely for beating Wall Street forecasts. Albemarle rose 7.2% and Viacom rose 4.4%. Companies within the S&P 500 index are nearly done reporting earnings for their most recent quarter and results have been much better than investors initially predicted.