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The stock market finished higher after choppy trading on Thursday, with consumer and tech stocks leading the gains as investors seemed to ease off recent concerns about a potential economic slowdown triggered by surging inflation and rising rates.
Markets attempted to bounce back after last month’s losses.
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Stocks bounced back after two consecutive days of losses: The Dow Jones Industrial Average jumped 1.3%, over 400 points, while the S&P 500 gained 1.8% and the tech-heavy Nasdaq Composite 2.7%.
Markets erased earlier losses—with the Dow falling 300 points at one point—and turned positive later in the day as investors tried to brush off fears about Fed rate hikes leading to an economic slowdown, with shares of consumer and technology companies leading the gains on Thursday.
Shares of tech giant Microsoft jumped nearly 1% even after the company lowered its financial guidance for the current quarter, warning that earnings and revenue would fall short of analyst estimates.
Other tech stocks rallied on Thursday: Facebook-parent Meta’s shares rose by roughly 4% a day after COO Sheryl Sandberg announced she would be stepping down, while shares of Nvidia and Zoom each gained more than 5%.
Investors looking for clues about the central bank’s monetary policy tightening assessed the latest comments from Fed Vice Chair Lael Brainard on Thursday, who told CNBC in an interview that it looks very unlikely that the current rate-hiking cycle will end anytime soon.
The latest National Employment Report from ADP, meanwhile, weighed on markets as data showed that private US employers recorded their worst monthly job growth in over two years amid concerns about surging inflation.