U.S. Stocks Moving Back To The Upside Following Yesterday’s Pullback

Stocks have moved mostly higher over the course of morning trading on Thursday, partly offsetting the sharp pullback seen in the previous session. Buying interest has been somewhat subdued, however, limiting the upside for the major averages.

The tech-heavy Nasdaq briefly dipped into the red in recent trading but has since rebounded in positive territory. Currently, the Nasdaq is up 30.73 points or 0.2 percent at 13,953.35, while the Dow is up 169.35 points or 0.5 percent at 34,527.85 and the S&P 500 is up 21.84 points or 0.5 percent at 4,478.08.

The early upward move on Wall Street extends the see-saw performance shown by the markets over the past few sessions.

The volatility seen in recent sessions comes as traders express some uncertainty about the near-term outlook for the markets following the recovery rally seen last week.

The major averages climbed well off their recent lows last week but have had some trouble sustaining the rebound amid continued concerns about the Russia-Ukraine war, inflation and interest rates.

Traders are keeping an eye on any developments out of Europe, where President Joe Biden is meeting with U.S. allies to discuss additional sanctions on Russia.

With Europe depending heavily on Russian gas for heating and power generation, the European Union is split on whether to sanction Russia’s energy sector.

In U.S. economic news, the Labor Department released a report showing first-time claims for U.S. unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in over 50 years in the week ended March 19th.

The report showed initial jobless claims slid to 187,000, a decrease of 28,000 from the previous week’s revised level of 215,000.

Economists had expected jobless claims to edge down to 212,000 from the 214,000 originally reported for the previous week.

With the bigger than expected decrease, jobless claims dropped to their lowest level since hitting 182,000 in September 1969.

Meanwhile, a separate report from the Commerce Department showed new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods tumbled by much more than expected in the month of February amid a sharp pullback in orders for transportation equipment.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders slumped by 2.2 percent in February after jumping by 1.6 percent in January. Economists had expected durable goods orders to dip by 0.5 percent.

Excluding the steep drop in orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders fell by 0.6 percent in February after climbing by 0.8 percent in January. The decrease surprised economists, who had expected ex-transportation orders to rise by 0.6 percent.

Steel stocks have moved sharply higher in morning trading, driving the NYSE Arca Steel Index up by 2 percent to its best intraday level in almost eleven years.

Significant strength h as also emerged among semiconductor stocks, as reflected by the 1.8 percent gain being posted by the Philadelphia Semiconductor Index.

Gold stocks are also turning in a strong performance on the day, resulting in a 1.7 percent advance by the NYSE Arca Gold Bugs Index.

The strength among gold stocks comes amid an increase by the price of the precious metal, with gold for April delivery climbing $22.50 to $1,959.80 an ounce.

Chemical, natural gas and oil service stocks are also seeing notable strength, moving higher along with most of the other major sectors.

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region turned in a mixed performance during trading on Thursday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index rose by 0.3 percent, while China’s Shanghai Composite Index fell by 0.6 percent.

The major European markets have also turned mixed on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has edged up by 0.2 percent, the French CAC 40 Index and the German DAX Index are both down by 0.4 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries have moved back to the downside following the rebound seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 2.7 basis points at 2.348 percent.

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