WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - Following the pullback seen during Wednesday's session, stocks moved mostly higher over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The Dow showed a significant move back to the upside, reaching a new record closing high.
The Dow gave back some ground going into the end of the day but still jumped 874.86 points or 1.7 percent to 51,561.93. The S&P 500 also climbed 30.63 points or 0.4 percent to 7,584.31 but the tech-heavy Nasdaq closed down 23.02 points or 0.1 percent at 26,830.98.
The rebound by the Dow partly reflected a sharp increase by shares of UnitedHealth (UNH), with the health insurance giant surging by 5.2 percent.
UnitedHealth rallied in reaction to an upgrade by Bank of America, which raised its rating on the company's stock to Buy from Neutral.
Dow components American Express (AXP), Goldman Sachs (GS) and Merck (MRK) also posted strong gains on the day.
Meanwhile, the Nasdaq climbed well off its worst levels but still ended the day modestly lower amid weakness among technology stocks.
A steep drop by shares of Broadcom (AVGO) weighed on the tech sector, as the chipmaker plunged by 12.6 percent despite reporting fiscal second quarter earnings that exceeded analyst estimates.
Traders were seemingly disappointed that Broadcom CEO Hock Tan failed to raise the company's full-year forecast of $100 billion in AI chip sales.
'Broadcom may have emerged as a key player in the booming AI infrastructure market, with a particular expertise in the custom chips increasingly being used by the likes of Alphabet and Meta,' said AJ Bell head of markets Dan Coatsworth.
He added, 'However, just like its rival Nvidia, Broadcom is finding that meeting and even slightly beating forecasts is not enough when the market is holding it to such a high standard.'
Sector News
Banking stocks showed a substantial move to the upside on the day, resulting in a 3.7 percent spike by the KBW Bank Index. The index ended the session at its best closing level in almost four months.
Pharmaceutical and healthcare stocks also saw significant strength, the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index surging by 3.5 percent and the Dow Jones U.S. Health Care Index jumping by 3 percent.
Brokerage, biotechnology and commercial real estate stocks also saw considerable strength on the day, while semiconductor and computer hardware stocks showed notable moves to the downside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower during trading on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1.4 percent, while Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index tumbled by 1.5 percent.
Meanwhile, most European stocks moved to the upside on the day. The French CAC 40 Index jumped by 1.2 percent, the German DAX Index advanced by 0.6 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.3 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries moved modestly higher, largely offsetting the weakness seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, edged down by 1.4 basis points to 4.477 percent.
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