WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - After coming under pressure early in the session, stocks have regained ground over the course of the trading day on Thursday. The major averages have climbed well off their lows of the session, with the S&P 500 joining the narrower Dow in positive territory.
Currently, the Dow is up 508.68 points or 1 percent at 52,130.16 amid strong gains by Nike (NKE), Salesforce (CRM) and UnitedHealth (UNH).
The S&P 500 is also up 5.92 points or 0.1 percent at 7,724.86, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is well off its worst levels but still down 104.13 points or 0.4 percent at 26,588.74.
The early weakness on Wall Street came as tech stocks saw further downside following yesterday's sell-off amid renewed concerns about the outlook for the artificial intelligence trade.
'Tech investors are getting uncomfortable with the amount of debt being used to fund the AI build-out,' said Dan Coatsworth, head of markets at AJ Bell. 'There is a growing fear that big names in the tech space are running too fast, and they're primed to trip up.'
He added, 'Reports about Anthropic's third quarter revenue suggest it isn't growing as fast as expected, which added to fears that the AI euphoria might be hard to sustain.'
The initial slump by tech stocks dragged the Nasdaq down to its lowest intraday level in almost a month, which may have inspired some bargain hunting.
The subsequent recovery also comes amid a steep drop by treasury yields, with the yield on the benchmark ten-year note tumbling to a three-week low.
Yields are moving lower despite the release of a report from the Labor Department showing producer prices in the U.S. shot up by much more than expected in the month of September.
The Labor Department said its producer price index for final demand jumped by 1.3 in September after rising by an upwardly revised 0.5 percent in August. Economists had expected producer prices to climb by 0.5 percent.
The data has added to recent concerns about the outlook for interest rates, although CME Group's FedWatch Tool suggests the Federal Reserve is still likely to leave rates unchanged later this month.
Sector News
Housing stocks have moved sharply higher over the course of the session, with the Philadelphia Housing Sector Index spiking by 3.3 percent after ending the previous session at its lowest closing level in almost three years.
Substantial strength is also visible among pharmaceutical stocks, as reflected by the 3.2 percent surge by the NYSE Arca Pharmaceutical Index.
Gold stocks have also shown a significant move to the upside along with the price of the precious metal, driving the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index up by 3.2 percent.
Healthcare, biotechnology and airline stocks are also seeing considerable strength, while semiconductor, networking and energy stocks are showing notable moves to the downside.
Other Markets
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved notably lower on Thursday. South Korea's Kospi plummeted by 7.6 percent, Japan's Nikkei 225 Index tumbled by 4.9 percent and China's Shanghai Composite Index slumped by 1.6 percent.
Meanwhile, the major European markets have moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.'s FTSE 100 Index is up by 1.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index is up by 0.8 percent and the German DAX Index is up by 0.4 percent.
In the bond market, treasuries have moved sharply higher, extending the upward move seen over the course of the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is down by 9.5 basis points at 5.095 percent.
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