WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After showing a strong move to the upside early in the session, stocks have given back ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages have pulled back well off their highs of the session, with the Nasdaq and S&P 500 briefly dipping below the unchanged line.
Currently, the major averages are all in positive territory. The Dow is up 299.40 points or 0.6 percent at 50,218.18, the Nasdaq is up 94.10 points or 0.4 percent at 25,263.60 and the S&P 500 is up 20.89 points or 0.3 percent at 7,287.88.
The early strength on Wall Street partly reflected bargain hunting following the weakness seen during yesterday's session, which dragged the Nasdaq and S&P 500 down to their lowest closing levels in a month.
Semiconductor stocks helped lead the rebound, with shares of Intel (INTC) surging by 5.6 percent in pre-market trading after Bank of America upgraded its rating on the chipmaker's stock to Buy from Underperform.
However, buying interest has waned over the course of the session, as traders react to President Donald Trump's latest threats against Iran.
Trump said in a post on Truth Social that the U.S. will be hitting Iran 'very hard tonight' and claimed he plans to assume total control of their oil and gas markets 'at some point in the not too distant future.'
Concerns about inflation may also be limiting the strength on Wall Street after the Labor Department released a report showing producer prices increased by more than expected in the month of May.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand shot up by 1.1 percent in May, matching a downwardly revised jump in April.
Economists had expected producer prices to climb by 0.7 percent compared to the 1.4 percent surge originally reported for the previous month.
The report also said the annual rate of producer price growth accelerated to 6.5 percent in May from 5.7 percent in April, reaching the fastest rate of growth since November 2022.
Sector News
Semiconductor stocks have shown a substantial move to the upside on the day, resulting in a 3.3 percent spike by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.
Significant strength is also visible among networking stocks, as reflected by the 2.1 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Networking Index.
Steel, pharmaceutical and transportation stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while software stocks have come under pressure, dragging the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index down by 2.3 percent.
A steep drop by Oracle (ORCL) is weighing on the software sector, with the tech giant plunging by 10.6 percent on the day.
While Oracle reported better than expected quarterly results and raised its full-year profit forecast, traders seem troubled by the company's plan to raise more money to fund its substantial AI spending.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region ended mixed on Thursday. Japan's Nikkei 225 Index inched up by 0.1 percent and South Korea's Kospi rose by 0.4 percent, while China's Shanghai Composite Index dipped by 0.2 percent and Hong Kong's Hang Seng Index slid by 0.7 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have all moved to the upside on the day. While the German DAX Index is up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.7 percent and the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 0.8 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved modestly higher over the course of the session. As a result, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 1.7 basis points at 4.525 percent.
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