Tech Stocks Help Lead Rebound On Wall Street
After moving sharply lower over the two previous sessions, stocks have moved back to the upside in morning trading on Friday. The Nasdaq has shown a particularly strong upward move amid strength among tech stocks.
Currently, the major averages are all in positive territory, although the Dow is up just 33.77 points or 0.1 percent at 33,078.33. The Nasdaq is up 113.98 points or 1.1 percent at 10,966.16, and the S&P 500 is up 21.43 points or 0.6 percent at 3,920.28.
The rebound on Wall Street comes as traders look to pick up stocks at relatively reduced levels following recent weakness, which reflected ongoing concerns about the outlook for the economy and interest rates.
The Dow has shown a particularly steep drop so far this week, with the blue chip index turning negative for the New Year.
Tech stocks have helped lead the way higher amid a positive reaction to quarterly results from streaming giant Netflix (NFLX).
Shares of Netflix are surging by 6.2 percent after the company reported fourth quarter earnings that missed analyst estimates but stronger than expected subscriber growth.
Netflix also announced Reed Hastings is stepping down as co-CEO, with COO Greg Peters assuming the post of co-CEO alongside Ted Sarandos.
Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL) is also seeing significant strength after announcing plans to cut about 12,000 jobs or 6 percent 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 the month of December, although the decrease was much smaller than economists had expected.
NAR said existing home sales slumped by 1.5 percent to an annual rate of 4.02 million in December after plunging by 7.9 percent to a revised rate of 4.08 million in November.
Economists had expected existing home sales to tumble by 3.4 percent to an annual rate of 3.95 million from the 4.09 million originally reported for the previous month.
Banking stocks have shown a significant rebound following recent weakness, driving the KBW Bank Index up by 1.8 percent.
Considerable strength has also emerged among software stocks, as reflected by the 1.5 percent gain being posted by the Dow Jones U.S. Software Index.
Airline, oil service and chemical stocks are also seeing notable strength, while most of the other major sectors are showing more modest moves.
In overseas trading, stock markets across the Asia-Pacific region moved mostly higher during trading on Friday. Japan’s Nikkei 225 Index climbed by 0.6 percent, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index surged by 1.8 percent.
The major European markets have also moved to the upside on the day. While the U.K.’s FTSE 100 Index has edged up by 0.2 percent, the German DAX Index and the French CAC 40 Index are up by 0.5 percent and 0.6 percent, respectively.
In the bond market, treasuries are extending the pullback seen in the previous session. Subsequently, the yield on the benchmark ten-year note, which moves opposite of its price, is up by 6.7 basis points at 3.464 percent.
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