Tech stocks help lead rebound on Wall Street
Currently, the major averages are all in positive territory, although the Dow Jones is up only 33.77 points or 0.1% at 33,078.33. The Nasdaq is up 113.98 points or 1.1% at 10,966.16, and the S&P 500 is up 21.43 points or 0.6% at 3,920.28.
Wall Street’s rebound comes as traders look to rally equities at relatively reduced levels after recent weakness, which reflected lingering worries about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.
The Dow Jones has seen a particularly steep drop so far this week, with the blue chip index turning negative for the new year.
Tech stocks helped lead the way higher amid a positive reaction to streaming giant Netflix’s (NFLX) quarterly results.
Shares of Netflix jumped 6.2% after the company reported fourth-quarter results that missed analysts’ estimates but delivered stronger-than-expected subscriber growth.
Netflix also announced that Reed Hastings is stepping down as co-CEO, with COO Greg Peters taking over as co-CEO alongside Ted Sarandos.
Google’s parent company Alphabet (GOOGL) is also seeing significant strength after announcing plans to cut around 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce.
In U.S. economic news, the National Association of Realtors released a report showing a continued decline in U.S. existing home sales in December, although the decline was much smaller than marketers had expected. economists.
NAR said existing home sales fell 1.5% to an annual rate of 4.02 million in December after falling 7.9% to a revised rate of 4.08 million in November.
Economists had expected existing home sales to fall 3.4% to an annual rate of 3.95 million from the 4.09 million originally reported for the previous month.
Banking stocks showed a significant rebound from recent weakness, pushing the KBW banking index up 1.8%.
Considerable strength has also emerged among software stocks, as evidenced by the 1.5% gain posted by the Dow Jones US Software Index.
Stocks of airlines, oil services and chemicals are also seeing notable strength, while most other major sectors are showing more modest moves.
In foreign trade, stocks markets in the Asia-Pacific region increased mainly during Friday’s session. Japan’s Nikkei 225 index climbed 0.6%, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index jumped 1.8%.
The main European markets also moved higher on the day. While the British FTSE 100 index edged up 0.2%, the German DAX index and the French CAC 40 index rose 0.5% and 0.6% respectively.
On the bond market, treasury bills extend the decline seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark 10-year note, which moves opposite to its price, rose 6.7 basis points to 3.464%.
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