Stock market rebounds: Dow rises 401 points

The Wall Street roller coaster started to climb again.

The Dow closed up 401 points, or 1.6%, on Thursday. The broader S<><><><><><>&P 500 gained 1.9% and the Nasdaq surged 3%, its best day since March. Stocks bounced back after a sharp drop Wednesday that a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/tech/tech-earnings/index.html”sent the Nasdaq into a correction/a./ppThe market has slumped badly in the past several weeks, but it hasn’t fallen in a straight line. Volatility is spiking, and huge sell-offs have been interspersed with big gains, including October 16’s 548-point jump for the Dow and October 12’s 287-point gain./ppStill, the back and forth has been heaviest in one direction: down. The S<><><><><><>P 500 was less than a percentage point drop away from entering a correction Wednesday. Investors had been looking for strong corporate earnings to drag stocks out of the doldrums, but earnings have disappointed this quarter. That gave already nervous investors more anxiety./pp”No matter how good the report or how positive the guidance, investors are looking for the exits,” said Justin Walters, cofounder of Bespoke Investment Group, in a note to investors Thursday. “Companies that are reporting earnings this season are getting slaughtered.”/ppThe average stock has fallen 2% the day after reporting earnings this quarter — the worst performance of the 21st century, according to Walters./ppConcerns about rising rates and the trade war have spooked the markets this month. The S<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>P 500 has fallen 7% in October. And the Nasdaq is down 9%, on track for its worst month since November 2008. Only 13% of stocks are trading above their 50-day moving averages, evidence that Walters believes suggests stocks have been oversold./ppInvestors agreed on Thursday at least. They saw a buying opportunity, particularly in tech./ppAll of the FAANG stocks were up more than 2%. Amazon led the pack, up 7%./ppTwitter (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=TWTR”TWTR/a) spiked 16% after a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/tech/twitter-earnings-q3/index.html”reporting higher profit/a and more engaged customers despite losing users overall. Netflix (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=NFLX”NFLX/a) rebounded after a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2018/10/25/investing/stock-market-today-dow/index.html”plummeting 9%/a Wednesday. Microsoft (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=msft”MSFT/a) rose about 6% after a href=”http://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/tech/microsoft-earnings/index.html”reporting strong earnings/a the night before./ppTesla (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=tsla”TSLA/a) was up 9%. The company reported by far its a href=”https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/tech/tesla-earnings-profit-elon-musk/index.html”most profitable quarter/a in history late Wednesday, lessening concerns of a looming cash crunch that had been weighing on shares./ppTech will be tested again later on Thursday: Alphabet, Amazon (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AMZN”AMZN/a), Snap (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=SNAP”SNAP/a) and Intel (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=INTC”INTC/a) all will post their quarterly financial report after the bell./ppSouthwest (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=LUV”LUV/a) fell 9% after reporting higher oil prices would pinch profit in the future. But American Airlines (a href=”https://money.cnn.com/quote/quote.html?symb=AAL”AAL/a) rose 7% following strong earnings Thursday morning./ppThe Dow a href=”https://www.cnn.com/2018/10/24/tech/tech-earnings/index.html”tumbled/a more than 600 points on Wednesday, and the Nasdaq lost 4%, its worst one-day percentage drop in more than seven years.
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