U.S. Stocks Regain Ground Following Yesterday’s Tech Sell-Off

After seeing considerable weakness in the previous session, stocks showed a strong move back to the upside during trading on Tuesday. The tech-heavy Nasdaq led the way higher after posting a particularly steep loss on Monday.

The Nasdaq surged 391.75 points or 2.0 percent to 19,733.59, partly offsetting the 3.1 percent plunge seen during yesterday’s session. The S&P 500 also jumped 55.42 points or 0.9 percent to 6,067.70, while the narrower Dow rose 136.77 points or 0.3 percent to 44,850.35.

The strength on Wall Street came as some traders looked to pick up technology stocks at somewhat reduced levels following the sell-off seen in the sector during Monday’s trading.

Shares of Nvidia (NVDA) soared by 8.8 percent after the AI darling and market leader plunged by 17.0 percent in yesterday’s session.

Buying interest was somewhat subdued, however, as traders looked ahead to the Federal Reserve’s monetary policy announcement on Wednesday.

The Fed is almost universally expected to leave interest rates unchanged, but traders are likely to pay close attention to the accompanying statement for clues about the outlook for rates.

Recent economic data has led to concerns about the Fed leaving rates on hold for a prolonged period, but many economists still expect the central bank to resume cutting rates sometime in the first half of the year.

CME Group’s FedWatch Tool is currently indicating a 74.5 percent chance rates will be lower by at least a quarter point following the Fed’s June meeting.

In U.S. economic news, a report released by the Commerce Department unexpectedly showed a steep drop by new orders for U.S. manufactured durable goods in the month of December amid a nosedive by orders for transportation equipment.

The Commerce Department said durable goods orders plunged by 2.2 percent in December after tumbling by a revised 2.0 percent in November.

Economists had expected durable goods orders to climb by 0.8 percent compared to the 1.2 percent slump that had been reported for the previous month.

However, excluding the steep drop by orders for transportation equipment, durable goods orders rose by 0.3 percent in December after edging down by 0.2 percent in November. Ex-transportation orders were expected to increase by 0.4 percent.

The Conference Board also released a report showing its U.S. consumer confidence index decreased from a notably upwardly revised level in January.

The report said the consumer confidence index slid to 104.1 in January from an upwardly revised 109.5 in December.

Economists had expected the consumer confidence index to climb to 106.3 from the 104.7 originally reported for the previous month.

Sector News

Software stocks turned in some of the market’s best performances on the day, resulting in a 3.0 percent surge by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index.

Considerable strength was also visible among brokerage stocks, as reflected by the 1.3 percent gain posted by the NYSE Arca Broker/Dealer Index.

Semiconductor and networking stocks also regained ground following yesterday’s sell-off, while airline stocks showed a significant move to the downside, dragging the NYSE Arca Airline Index down by 2.4 percent.

Oil producer, commercial real estate and pharmaceutical stocks also saw notable weakness, partly offsetting the strength in the aforementioned sectors.

Other Markets

In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly lower, with several major markets closed for holidays. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index slumped by 1.4 percent, while Australia’s S&P/ASX 200 Index edged down by 0.1 percent.

Meanwhile, the major European markets ended the day mixed. While the French CAC 40 Index slipped by 0.1 percent, the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index rose by 0.4 percent and the German DAX Index climbed by 0.7 percent.

In the bond market, treasuries gave back ground as traders looked ahead to the Fed announcement on Wednesday. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, rose 2.3 basis points to 4.551 percent.

Looking Ahead

Early trading on Wednesday may be somewhat subdued as traders look ahead to the Fed’s monetary policy announcement in the afternoon.

Business News