WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the sell-off seen in the previous session, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Thursday. The major averages all moved notably higher, with the tech-heavy Nasdaq leading the way.
The major averages ended the day not far off their highs of the session. The Nasdaq jumped 236.41 points or 1.0 percent to 22,863.68, the Dow advanced 370.44 points or 0.8 percent to 49,174.50 and the S&P 500 climbed 52.32 points or 0.8 percent to 6,890.07.
The strength on Wall Street may partly have reflected bargain hunting, as some traders looked to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following the steep drop seen yesterday.
The Dow tumbled to its lowest closing level in a month on Monday amid renewed uncertainty about President Donald Trump's tariffs.
Semiconductor stocks helped lead the move back to the upside, with the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index jumping by 1.5 percent to a new record closing high.
Chipmaker Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) turned in one of the sector's best performance, surging by 8.8 percent.
The rally by AMD came after the company announced a 6-gigawatt agreement to power Meta's (META) next generation of AI infrastructure across multiple generations of AMD Instinct GPUs.
Significant strength was also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Oil service, gold, airline and software stocks also turned in strong performances, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.
In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Conference Board showed an improvement in U.S. consumer confidence in the month of February.
The Conference Board said its consumer confidence index rose to 91.2 in February from an upwardly revised 89.0 in January. Economists had expected the index to jump to 88.0 from the 84.5 originally reported for the previous month.
'Confidence ticked up in February after falling in January, as consumers' pessimistic expectations for the future eased somewhat,' said Dana M Peterson, Chief Economist, The Conference Board.
'Four of five components of the Index firmed,' she added. 'Nonetheless, the measure remained well below the four-year peak achieved in November 2024 (112.8).'
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific turned in a mixed performance during trading on Tuesday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index and China's Shanghai Composite Index both advanced by 0.9 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slumped by 1.8 percent.
The major European markets also ended the day mixed, While the French CAC 40 Index rose by 0.3 percent, the German DAX Index and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index both closed marginally lower.
In the bond market, treasuries showed a lack of direction over the course of the session before closing roughly flat. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, inched up by less than a basis point to 4.033 percent.
Looking Ahead
Amid a relatively quiet day on the U.S. economic front, trading on Wednesday may be impacted by reaction to any significant news out of President Donald Trump's State of the Union address.
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